Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS

THE CUCKOOS

Typical Cuckoos

In the typical Cuckoos (Cuculina), which embrace some twenty genera and very nearly half of the total number of species, the wing is long, pointed, and flat, and does not fit closely to the body, while the tarsus is more or less feathered in front. With very few exceptions, among them the American genus Coccyzus, the members of this subfamily are parasitic, especially the so-called true Cuckoos (Cuculus), the habits of one species of which have already been given.

These birds to the number of about a dozen species are widely spread throughout the whole of the Old World except Polynesia, and may be known by the usual grayish or brownish Hawk-like plumage and the fan-shaped tail, while the closed wings extend beyond the upper tail-coverts.

They are birds about ten or twelve inches long, of swift, very Hawk-like flight and peculiar resonant call notes, that of the common Cuckoo (C. canorus), together with an allied South African species (C gularis), having the well-known cuckoo call. Their food consists mainly of caterpillars, grubs, worms, and soft-bodied insects, and all are more or less migratory, some being particularly so. Thus the common Cuckoo is found in summer over all of Europe up to or possibly beyond the Arctic Circle, as well as in northern Asia, and retires in winter to Africa, the Indian peninsula, and the Malay countries.

It is a shy, wild bird, often heard but seldom seen, due in part doubtless to its continued persecution by ignorant people, who assert that it turns into a Hawk during the winter months. To the eastward the place is occupied by the closely related Himalayan Cuckoo (C. saturatus), which differs by its smaller size and stouter bill, and the Gray-headed Cuckoo (C. poliocephalus), which is still smaller and much darker colored. The latter species is also a very shy bird, frequenting the borders of the old forests and giving frequent voice to its peculiar and decidedly unmusical call. The Indian Cuckoo (C. micropterus) is known by its dark brown upper parts and paler tail, which has a broad subterminal band of black.

It is a migratory species with a fine melodious call, but its breeding habits remain practically unknown. The most marked of the African species is the Black Cuckoo (C. clamosus), distinguished at once by its glossy greenish black plumage and white-tipped tail. As its technical name indicates, it is a noisy bird, the note being very loud and harsh, and it is also an excessively shy, active bird, flitting about in the tops of the lofty trees, and is secured with great difficulty.

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