The European Cuckoo

The Eurasian reed warbler is raising a
common cuckoo.

        In Europe, the people welcome back the Cuckoo bird from its winter in Africa because of its sweet song and because it is usually associated with all that is delightful in the return of spring. The familiar call is the song of the father bird. This lovely spring song is heard in the day and often at night.

       Poets and prose writers have frequently mentioned this peculiar bird. Superstitions and folk-lore are full of stories of strange cuckoo actions. One superstition regarding the cuckoo is the belief started by the ancients that the bird changes into a hawk in the winter. This myth originated probably through a resemblance of the cuckoo to the English Sparrowhawk.

       The European Cuckoo is a rather large bird with grayish-brown feathers and a long tail. As it flies, it darts about, just as the dreaded sparrowhawk does. This imitation of a much larger and fiercer bird aids in frightening the smaller birds.

       The most interesting thing about this cuckoo to nature-lovers is its method of egg-laying, often called the "cuckoo's secret." The mother bird never builds a nest. Our own familiar cowbird has the same lazy habit. The mother European Cuckoo picks out a suitable nest for depositing her egg, usually choosing the nest of some smaller bird such as the Tree or Meadow Pipit, Hedge-Sparrow, Reed Warbler or Pied Wagtail. Then in some near-by tree or bush, she takes up her silent watch of the chosen nest and its owners. Sometimes she watches quietly for several days before she finally places her egg in the nest of the foster parents. Usually she waits until the parents leave the nest or are frightened away before she deposits her egg. When possible, the mother cuckoo lays her egg directly in the nest. If the nest is too small for such a large bird to enter or perch on even for a few seconds, the mother lays her egg on the ground and then carries it in her bill to the small nest.

       When the mother cuckoo adds her egg to those that rightfully belong there, she usually removes one of the proper eggs to make room for her own egg. It is believed that she eats this extra egg or in some other way destroys it.

       After getting rid of her own egg, the mother cuckoo goes on her way for a few days rejoicing and singing with the other cuckoos. In this playtime she searches for hairy caterpillars to eat. The mother's song is not a cuckoo call as is the father's, but a low bubbling sound.

       During the months of May and June the mother lays sometimes as many as twenty eggs in twenty different nests. This task finished, the cuckoos soon start on their long trip south to Africa. Only the adult or old birds fly south at this time. They are not often seen during the journey since they fly at night.

       The cuckooes eggs are small for such a large bird, but even so they are usually larger than the eggs with which they are placed. They vary in color from a mottled greenish-blue to a dull reddish-gray. No doubt some of the cuckoo eggs are destroyed by the foster parents but many times the unsuspecting foster mother keeps the large egg warm and treats it as if it were her own.

       When the young cuckoo hatches into this world it is a very ugly, blind baby having no feathers and a peculiar flat back. Very soon this baby starts to make more room for itself. If the other eggs are hatched, the blind cuckoo hoists these babies one at a time onto its own flat back and heaves them overboard from their rightful nest onto the ground to die. If, by chance, the other eggs have not hatched the cuckoo has an easier time pushing them out of the nest.

       Thus the cuckoo baby makes itself king of the nest. Two foster parents bring food and care only for this one large baby. It demands a great amount of attention and does not seem to be able to care for itself for a month or more.

       The young cuckoos, scattered in many nests, are able to fly south in September or later. Then occurs one of the miracles of nature. These young birds, with no experience or guide, follow the same route to Africa that their parents took several weeks before. Arriving in Africa, they spend the winter with the older birds. In April, all the cuckoos fly back north for a short but happy mating season.

       Our own cuckoos in North America are different in many ways. Here each mother bird builds a nest and takes care of her own young. The song of the American cuckoo does not in any way resemble the cuckoo call in England. Our cuckooes call is a low croaking sound that is often heard just before a rain. Thus the bird is commonly called a "Rain Crow." Wood.

This is a clip from "RHYTHMS OF NATURE

 IN THE BARYCZ VALLEY" movie.