Common cuckoo. cuckoo bird

Cuckoos live almost everywhere - both in the vastness of Russia and in other countries. But since this bird leads an extremely secretive lifestyle, flies only at night, and hides in the thicket during the day, even professional ornithologists know much less about it than about other birds.

Here, let's say, such a simple example: absolutely everyone knows that the cuckoo publishes its famous "cuckoo". Are you sure that these birds have a modest "cuckoo" is the only, let's say, melody in stock? If - yes, then go to Siberia, beyond the Urals, and there you will meet cuckoos, who, if you just wait and listen, instead of the boring "cuckoo" they will suddenly give you something like "doo-doo-doo, doo-doo" . Another subspecies of cuckoos, in the same place in Siberia, declares its presence with a whole phrase: “Here is Tetyukhe, here is Te-tyukhe,” - in any case, this is how the locals translate these sounds from the cuckoo language.

On Far East there are cuckoos that make sounds: “Pee-pee-pee a, pee-pee-pee a, pee-pee-pee a!” or something completely unimaginable, like "Ju-dshi, ju-dshi, ju-dshi."

However, for some reason, all these birds are called cuckoos. Probably because the subspecies of these birds, which, apart from the solo performance of “cuckoo”, can do nothing else, is the most common.

Joy or sorrow?

Due to the fact that there are many cuckoos in the world, and we know little about them, many legends and beliefs have appeared around these birds. For example, Ukrainians believed that cuckooing near housing meant crop failure. Cooking for the Annunciation - expect bad news. In the summer, until the cuckoo calls, in no case should you swim. Since the cuckoo catches a person’s eyes very rarely, you can only see it by chance, and you should definitely look at how it sits: if it crows with its tail towards the house, this is good news, but if its head is a bad thing, someone will soon will die.

If you heard the cuckoo for the first time in a year, being in a cheerful mood, you had money in your pocket and you rang coins or keys in response to cuckooing, then, according to legend, you will be happy all year with money.

In Belgium, to get rid of diseases, it was necessary, upon hearing the cuckoo, to fall to the ground and roll from side to side. And in France, 300 years ago, people believed that when they heard "cuckoo", they should take the earth from under their right foot, bring it home and scatter it on the floor there. It was considered the best remedy for fleas.
The Eastern Slavs associated mermaids with cuckoos. It was believed that "ku-ku" is their characteristic cry. So, in the Belarusian language, the word "zozulya" simultaneously means both a cuckoo and a mermaid.

"Sharing"

As for the cuckoo's manner of shifting the feeding and raising of their offspring onto other people's shoulders, yes! This cannot be taken away from them. Without exception, all cuckoos do this. Moreover, they do not lay their eggs in any nest, but carefully choose future adoptive parents for the cuckoo.

It is believed that the cuckoo picks up a nest similar to the one in which she hatched herself. There is one more necessary condition: in the chosen nest there should already be eggs laid by its owners. Having found such a nest, the cuckoo hides nearby for some time, because if the owners of the nest see it, they will raise a terrible noise and drive out the impudent one with shame.

As soon as the future caregivers fly far enough, the cuckoo does its dirty work, but, depending on the circumstances, in different ways. If the nest is open and strong, the bird sits directly on it and lays an egg. If the chosen place is in a hollow or has a side entrance, the cuckoo lays an egg on the ground, and then transfers it to the nest in its beak.

With foster mother

That's interesting. that the cuckoo egg, at first quite different in color from the “native” eggs of the owners of the nest, after some time becomes similar to them so that you can’t tell them apart.

It's not easy to cheat

However, one should not think that adoptive parents- complete idiots and easily accept all sorts of cuckoos into their family. Not at all! For example, Australian birds called painted malyurs fight cuckoo arbitrariness in the following way: they literally train eggs by emitting a unique trill over freshly laid masonry, which in the future serves as a password for hatched chicks to get food.

The cuckoo egg usually appears later, and therefore the cuckoo does not know the password. True, he is not a fool either, and his hearing is usually all right. So after some time, the cuckoo picks up the necessary melody and also begins to receive food.

In addition, birds can count and therefore know perfectly well how many eggs they have in their nest. This account-control looks like this: during the process of incubation, bald patches form on the abdomen of the bird, for each egg - its own. Bald patches are needed so that the eggs are pressed more tightly against the body of the hen. When a bird sits on a clutch, it instantly feels both a lack of an egg and a foundling. Feeling the stranger, the mother hen slowly pushes him away from her, and then simply throws him out of the nest. True, this does not always happen.

Other birds themselves leave the nest, leaving both their own and cuckoo eggs in it, and make a new one. Some, having found an uninvited guest, weave a new litter over the nest, thus burying their masonry under it along with the foundling. But still, many species of birds do not notice the forgery.

The cuckoo is usually the first to be born, and almost immediately announces real war everything that, in his opinion, in the nest is superfluous. And the superfluous in the nest, from the point of view of the cuckoo, is all. except for himself, beloved. Within three to four days, the cuckoo gets rid of almost all of its neighbors in the nest, simply throwing them overboard.

After five days, his fighting mood disappears, and if one of the chicks managed to survive this period, then no one will touch him. But the chance to survive for the rest is still extremely small - the point is. that the cuckoo intercepts all the food brought by adult birds, so that the rest of the chicks most often die of starvation.

Konstantin FEDOROV

The cuckoo bird is distributed almost everywhere. Not only the name, but also many folk signs. An interesting fact is that these familiar to everyone calls are made by males cuckoos to attract a female during the start of mating games.

What does a cuckoo look like

The common cuckoo has an inconspicuous coloration, but its flight can be confused with that of a hawk. Therefore, birds around whose nests the cuckoo winds often mistake it for a predator. On closer examination of the structure of this bird, you can see that it has a long wedge-shaped tail, sharp wings, and short legs. The structure of the foot allows you to stay on the surface in an upright position, as woodpeckers do. Adult cuckoos reach 34 centimeters in length and weigh up to 190 grams. The eyes are lined with bright orange skin. The color of the bird is dominated by dark gray and ashy colors, only belly white with dark stripes.

Where does the cuckoo live

This bird species is not selective in its habitats. Cuckoos settle in the tundra and subtropics, nest in Europe and Asia Minor. But they don’t stay to winter in those places where they flew in in the spring, they are attracted:

• Africa;
• Sahara;
• Asian countries.

Birds do not like dense taiga thickets; in all other wooded plantations, these individuals readily nest.

What feeds

Cuckoos are not harmful birds, but rather useful ones, as they are able to destroy many pests that are unsuitable for other birds to eat. They extremely voracious. Appetite becomes moderate only in the mating season. At this time, they make noise and become very active, forgetting about their secrecy and caution, loudly proclaiming their love to the whole neighborhood.

Cuckoo eggs take on the color and pattern of those eggs that are nearby in the nest, so the owners do not notice the substitution. After eleven to twelve days, a helpless chick is born. If he is lucky to hatch first, he will push out all the eggs lying next to him. He is still blind and bare-backed, but already strong enough and has the instinct to throw away everything that touches his back. The chick does this very quickly, because after four days his instinct will not work.

If his half-siblings have already been born, he will also brutally deal with them. He must remain alone in the nest, otherwise the little birds, to whom his real parents were thrown, will not be able to feed a horde of chicks, and cuckoo is incredibly gluttonous. Therefore, even the surviving native chick of the owners of the nest simply will not get food, and it will die anyway.

After three weeks, plumage will begin to appear in the chick, and the parents still continue to feed the foster baby. When they feed only their own brood, their children become independent much faster.

Why do birds behave this way? The cuckoo manages to make sounds that parents cannot resist. The cry of a chick sometimes imitates the cry of several chicks.

Other features of the cuckoo bird

Cuckoos live for almost ten years, but for their entire life period they do not change their breeding tactics. The cuckoo is a common and most common bird, but its way of life is difficult to study, since the bird behaves very secretively. Both females and males of the common cuckoo live separately until the pairing period.

Birds do not build nests, but the territory that they can explore in search of other people's nests is quite extensive, it is measured in several hectares. Carefully watching other birds, she makes a decisive choice: who will become mom and dad for her future chick. common cuckoo is not as simple as it seems at first glance. This bird closely following what is happening in the forest, and if the nest does not suit her, she will be able to identify her future chick in a hollow.

The common cuckoo is not an exemplary mother and a hardworking bird:

• will not build a nest;
• won't feed a baby.

It is not without reason that women who have given birth to children and abandoned them to be raised by grandparents or other relatives are said to be like ordinary cuckoos.

The bird has the ability to adapt. She lays eggs that are disproportionately small compared to her weight. Their weight can be as little as three grams, sometimes more. After all, she needs to “please” the future educators of her offspring. There are about one hundred and fifty species of birds that an unscrupulous feathered mother makes foster parents.

Benefit or harm

Most likely, this unusual common forest bird is beneficial. One hour is enough for her to deal with a hundred caterpillars. And you want to eat most of the day, and its stomach will easily process any kind of pest. Secretive lifestyle this bird helps her to hunt, but this secrecy does not allow her to observe the flight of cuckoos. They do not gather in flocks, they do not prepare for the flight, sitting on wires and trees. All flights are in slow pace, birds save their strength, as they do not stop anywhere and overcome great distances. Their wintering lasts in warm regions for three months.

Most of the cuckoo species are able to feed their offspring themselves, which they do with success.

The common cuckoo (from Latin Cuculus canorus) is the most common bird in the cuckoo family. Outwardly, the cuckoo is a bit like a hawk - the shape of the head, plumage and the nature of the flight. But the cuckoo differs from the hawk both in the length of the tail, and in the shape of the wings and habits.

The bird's legs are unusual structure(zygodactyl): of the four fingers, two are directed forward and two are backward. This structure facilitates flight and makes it easy to stay on vertical surfaces. The body length of an average bird is about 30 cm, average weight- 150 grams, the wingspan reaches 65 cm. The color is predominantly gray with white patches. In young females and males, the plumage is brighter, their outfit consists of shades of gray, brown and red. All individuals, regardless of their age and gender, have yellow legs and a black beak. The cuckoo, as a rule, leads a rather calm and measured way of life; it can be noisy and active in spring and early summer, mainly during the mating season.

Why does the cuckoo lay eggs in the nests of other birds?

The cuckoo cannot incubate the eggs herself, as they appear with a long period of time. It would turn out that the chick from the first egg has already hatched, and the last egg has just appeared. I would have to feed the first chick and at the same time hatch the last one, which is impossible. In addition, one cuckoo is so voracious that it is simply not possible for the cuckoo to feed all the offspring. So a way out was found - to use the help of other birds.

Ornithologists believe that female cuckoos are divided into ecological races or lines, each of which lays eggs of a specific shape and color and seeks nests of birds whose eggs are similar in color and size to their own. They manage to carry out their plan if the following become foster parents and caregivers: robin, white wagtail, forest pipit, thrush-like warbler, redstart, forest avmirushka, shrike-shrike, long-tailed bullfinch-uragus and miller's warbler. In terms of color and size, cuckoo eggs most of all resemble the eggs of the shrike-shrike and the thrush warbler, and then the cuckoos have a chance, and least of all they look like wren eggs and warblers, but this does not stop the cuckoo and often its eggs can be found in the nests of these birds. Sometimes, when a bird does not find a suitable nest for a long time, it lays eggs in the first one that comes across, without choosing the color and size. The chicks raised by caregivers, having matured, often return to lay their eggs in already familiar nests. To lay their eggs, the cuckoo searches for a suitable pair of birds at the time of nest construction and can sit in ambush for several hours and wait for the right moment. To lay her egg, she takes the owner's one from the nest and breaks or eats it. If the clutch is incubated and the tossing is not possible, the cuckoo destroys the nest and destroys the whole clutch in order to provoke the birds to breed and ensure the safe incubation of her egg. It takes 10-15 seconds for the cuckoo to lay its egg and make a change.

The wood lark and the green chick, the northern warbler and the brown-eyed white-eye almost never act as the educator of cuckoo chicks.

Video: Cuckoo grows in someone else's nest:

Cuckoo / Common Cuckoo

Common Cuckoo chick ejects eggs of Reed Warbler out of the nest. David Attenborough's opinion

It is very difficult to notice a cuckoo in the forest, but each of us probably had a chance to guess the fate of her melodic and slightly sad cuckoo. The same unpretentious “ku-ku” sounds in the name of this secretive bird in almost all European languages.
Habitat. Found in Europe, Asia and North Africa. Winters in Southeast Africa and Southeast Asia.

Habitat.
The cuckoo inhabits all of Europe, vast regions of Asia and small regions of Asia and small areas in northern Africa. Like all migratory birds, she flies to winter in Southeast Africa or South East Asia, and in its native lands it settles in meadows, fields, among hills and along the edges of swamps densely overgrown with reeds. In the mountains of Europe, cuckoos are found at an altitude of up to 2500 m, and in Asia - up to 4000 m above sea level. In wintering areas, they choose terrain similar to their homeland, resolutely avoiding deserts, dense forests, windswept tundra and areas of dense urban development.

Species: Common cuckoo - Cuculus canorus.
Family: Cuckoo.
Squad: Cuckoos.
Class: Birds.
Subtype: Vertebrates

Security.
In a number of European and African countries the cuckoo is a protected species and, feeding on pests, brings considerable benefits. Many cuckoos are killed by hunters who mistake them for raptors. During flights over Africa, some of the birds fall into the nets for catching quails. Many cuckoos die by eating insects poisoned by pesticides.

Did you know?

Reproduction.
Cuckoos do not arrive at nesting sites until May. The male from year to year returns to the same home area and immediately begins to call his girlfriend with a sonorous “cuckoo”. If the female shows interest in a potential partner, he performs a mating dance in front of her: lowering her head and wings, she spreads her long tail and gracefully waves it like a fan. In the finale, the gentleman presents the lady of the heart with a stalk of grass or a twig, and if she favorably accepts the gift, mating takes place. Some time later, the female leaves the male's territory and goes in search of nests of other birds in which to lay her eggs. In each nest, the female lays one egg, after throwing out one alien, so that the owners do not suspect something was wrong. The incubation of a cuckoo egg lasts 12 days - a little less than that of the hosts' clutch - therefore, the cuckoo hatches before everyone else and already 8 hours after birth, it begins to push the rest of the eggs out of the nest. Sometimes the cuckoo lays its egg too late.

Lifestyle.
Cuckoos live solitary, forming pairs only on a short time during mating season. Each bird occupies a certain home area, which, however, does not have strictly established boundaries - its area depends on the age and size of the owner. The territory of the female, as a rule, is smaller and may partially coincide with the possessions of the male. The male notifies neighbors of his presence by loud cuckooing and vigilantly guards the boundaries of the site. The cuckoo eats insects; the basis of her diet is caterpillars, beetles, dragonflies and grasshoppers, which she hunts from ambush, motionlessly hiding in the thick of branches. Having looked out for prey at a distance of up to 50 m, the bird instantly grabs it and immediately returns to its observation post. The favorite delicacy of the cuckoo is the hairy caterpillars of the pine cocoon moth. Having seized the victim, she first of all breaks her head, and then, holding it in her beak, vigorously twists it in the air in order to empty the prey's intestines. When insects are scarce, cuckoos eat earthworms, slugs, and small frogs.

Common cuckoo - Cuculus canorus.
Body length: 32-34 cm.
Wingspan: 55-60 cm.
Weight: 100-130 g.
Number of eggs in clutch: 8-12.
Incubation period: 12 days.
Food: insects.
Life span: up to 12 years.

Structure.
Beak. The short pointed beak is slightly bent down.
Eyes. The eyes are bordered with thin rings of bare skin. The color of the iris varies from gray to yellow.
Wings. The wings are long and pointed. Primary flight feathers are grayish-brown in color.
Tail. The marginal tail feathers of the long tail are shorter than the middle ones.
Legs. The short legs are covered with feathers down to the very toes.
Fingers. Two fingers look forward, and two - back. All fingers are armed with claws.
Plumage. The back and head are bluish-gray or brownish. The underside of the body is light with dark transverse stripes.

The cuckoo is a family of 140 species. The most numerous species is the common cuckoo.

We will analyze the appearance of these birds using the example of ordinary cuckoos.

Body length varies between 35-38 centimeters. The tail is 13-18 centimeters. These birds weigh about 130 grams.

The wingspan is approximately 55 centimeters. The limbs are short and strong. The feathers on the back and tail of males are dark blue. The chest and throat are light gray in color. The rest of the body is light, has dark stripes. The legs are yellow, the beak is dark.

In the color of females, brown and red shades prevail. The head and back are crossed with black stripes. The feathers are edged with white. On a light chest there are well-defined narrow stripes of black and white. The weight of females does not exceed 110 grams.

Young growth, basically, has a pale red color. The body along the entire length is crossed by darker stripes. Cuckoos molt 2 times a year. In summer they change their plumage partially, and in winter completely.

Cuckoos feed mainly on insects: tree beetles and caterpillars, which cause damage to the trunks and leaves of trees. In addition to insects, the diet of cuckoos includes eggs and chicks of other birds. Cuckoos do not eat their chicks and eggs that they did not manage to throw.

An irresponsible mother performs an “operation” to throw an egg in 8 seconds.

It is the males who cook, and the females are more silent, because they always try not to be noticed by anyone. Indeed, in order to throw your eggs into other people's nests, you need to behave extremely imperceptibly.

At the beginning of spring, cuckoos leave Africa for Asia and Europe. Birds lead a solitary life. Males own large territories which can reach several hectares. Females have less extensive allotments. The most important thing for cuckoos is that there are nests of other birds on their territory.

Reproduction and lifespan

One male fertilizes several cuckoos. Females do not build nests, but monitor how other birds behave. Most often, cuckoos toss their eggs to passerine birds, which are called songbirds.

Listen to the voice of the common cuckoo

During its existence, each maternal line has adapted to other birds at the genetic level. That is why the color similarity of the eggs is observed. Also, eggs are difficult to distinguish by size.

Females pursue only one task - to quietly throw their egg. To do this, the cuckoo waits for the bird to fly away from the nest, and then, it quickly completes its task. The female spends 8-10 seconds for such work. The female eats the host egg, throws it out of the nest or takes it with her.

Most often, parents are not aware of the substitution. Cuckoo chicks are born faster than other chicks, while they try to get rid of the host's eggs. Thanks to this strategy, the chicks are often the only ones in the nest.

The baby is growing rapidly, constantly demanding food. In the third week of life, the cuckoo chick leaves the nest. But the foster parents continue to feed the chick until it matures, this continues for about 3 more weeks.

Throwing its egg into someone else's nest, the cuckoo eats the "native" egg so that its cunning is invisible.

Behind summer season the female cuckoo manages to toss 3-5 eggs to other mothers. But the potential of these birds is very large, they can bring up to 30 eggs. If the cuckoo cannot find a suitable nest, then it throws it to any bird or simply leaves it on the ground.