From Opus

Alternative name: Eurasian Cuckoo

Photo by Daniele Occhiato
Passo della Raticosa, Tuscany, Italy

Cuculus canorus

[edit] Identification

Male:

• Bluish-grey upperparts, head and upper breast
• White belly with dark barring
• Yellow feet, iris and bill base
  

Female - two colour morphs

• Grey: similar to male but has a buffish tinge to upper chest
• Brown: rufous brown upperparts and breast
  

Brown Morph
Photo by AJDH
Badaan Farm, Bahrain, April 2008

[edit] Distribution

Common and very widespread throughout the region. Breeds in the British Isles and mainland Europe from Iberia east to the Urals and Caspian. In the north breeds throughout Scandinavia, except the extreme north coast and north to about 66° N in Russia. In the south breeds along north coast of Mediterranean and on the Balearics, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily, and throughout most of Turkey. Breeds patchily in the Middle East and in North Africa where confined to parts of the North-West. Has bred on Malta and Cyprus.

Strictly migratory, leaving Europe in late-July to early September to winter in tropical Africa and returning mid-April to May although wintering in Europe has been recorded.

Vagrant north to Iceland and Faroes, west to Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands and Cape Verde Islands.

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

• C. c. bangsi: possibly shows distinctly rufous breast in female.

• Iberian Peninsula, Balearic Islands and north-western Africa; winters in Africa

• C. c. canorus:

• Europe, Siberia to Kamchatka and Japan; winters to southern Africa

• C. c. subtelephonus: is similar in size to nominate but has narrower bars below.

• Turkestan to southern Mongolia; winters to southern Asia and Africa

• C. c. bakeri:

• Western China to northern India, Nepal, Burma, north-western Thailand and southern China

[edit] Habitat

A wide variety of habitats with trees and bushes including open woodland, moorland, forest edge and clearings, cultivated land and grassland, reedbeds and marshes.

[edit] Behaviour

It is a bird of open land.

[edit] Movement

Sits horizontally on wires or exposed branches.
Direct flight, with wings coming below the horizontal

[edit] Diet

Its food is insects, with hairy caterpillars, which are distasteful to many birds, being a specialty.

[edit] Breeding

The female lays an egg which mimicks the eggs of the host species. The hatchling pushes the eggs and young of the host out of the nest.

[edit] Vocalisation

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. Collins Bird Guide ISBN 0 00 219728 6
3. BF Member observations

• List of references

[edit] External Links