374.
Common Cuckoo (formerly European Cuckoo)
Cuculus canorus (Europese Koekoek)
Order: Cuculiformes. Family: Cuculidae
Description
Size 32-34 cm.
All adult males are slate-grey; the grey throat extends well down the bird's breast with a sharp demarcation to the barred underparts. The iris, orbital ring, the base of the bill and feet are yellow. Adult male best told by yellow-orange confined to base of bill and outer tail feathers spotted not barred (very hard to see).
Female is almost similar, except the upper breast which is rather rufous than grey. Grey adult females have a pinkish-buff or buff background to the barring and neck sides, and sometimes small rufous spots on the median and greater coverts and the outer webs of the secondary feathers. Female occurs in a rare rufous colour form. Rufous morph adult females have reddish-brown upperparts with dark grey or black bars. The black upperpart bars are narrower than the rufous bars, as opposed to rufous juvenile birds, where the black bars are broader
Juveniles may be brown, grey or chestnut; the upperparts are usually barred, with the feathers tipped with white; the underparts are heavily barred. The most obvious identification features of juvenile Common Cuckoos are the white nape patch and white feather fringes.
Similar species: This bird may be mistaken for a small hawk in flight.
Virtually indistinguishable in appearance from
African Cuckoo except on udertail pattern; African Cuckoo has a barred undertail, whereas Common Cuckoo has a spotted undertail. Common Cuckoo is generally less yellow on the bill than African Cuckoo, but not consistently so.
Distribution
Breeds across Eurasia, from the Iberian Peninsula east to Siberia and south to Japan and the Mediterranean; in the non-breeding season it heads south it to sub-Saharan Africa. In southern Africa it is locally common in central and northern Namibia (including the Caprivi Strip), Botswana, Zimbabwe, central Mozambique and eastern South Africa. The Common Cuckoo is a nonbreeding Palearctic migrant to western, central and southern Africa. In southern Africa it occurs mainly east of 25°E, extending westwards into northern Botswana, northern Namibia and the southern Cape Province.
Taxonomy
There are four subspecies worldwide:
C. c. canorus, the nominate subspecies, occurs from the British Isles through Scandinavia, north Russia and Siberia to Japan in the east, and from the Pyrenees through Turkey, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, northern China and Korea. It winters in Africa and south Asia.
C. c. bakeri, breeds in western China to the Himalayan foothills in northern India, Nepal, Myanmar, north-west Thailand and southern China. During winter it is found in Assam, East Bengal and south-east Asia.
C. c. bangsi breeds in Iberia, the Balearic Islands and north Africa, spending winter in Africa.
C. c. subtelephonus, breeds in central Asia from Turkestan to southern Mongolia. It migrates to southern Asia and Africa for winter.
Habitat
Diverse; woodland, savanna, riverine forest and plantations.
Movements
The entire European and part of the Asiatic population spend the nonbreeding season south of the equator, mostly south of 10°S. Asian birds probably cross the Indian Ocean to make landfall on the African east coast, and there is regular vagrancy to southern ocean islands. First arrivals are in October; the main arrival period is in early November and it appears to be later further south, where the period of peak occurrence is January–February. The last birds leave in April.
Diet
Eats mainly caterpillars, doing most of its foraging by gleaning prey from leaves and branches.
Breeding
It is a brood parasite. Individual females prefer certain foster birds, and lay eggs that closely mimic those of the foster species. A female will establish a territory encompassing a number of potential foster nests, and carefully observe activity, waiting until the nests are at the right stage. She then swiftly takes her chance, swooping down, ejecting an egg and laying one of her own. The unsuspecting host bird then incubates and feeds the impostor, who removes other eggs and young from the nest and often grows much larger than its foster parent. Female cuckoos usually lay fewer than 12 eggs in 12 different host nests each year.
Call
Silent in the region.
Status
Scarce to locally common summer visitor.
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