Cuckoo Birds

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The cuckoo bird in various sub-species is known throughout the world. The most common, aptly called the Common Cuckoo, is native to Europe, but it’s world-wide relatives probably have contributed to the popularity of the clocks named after it. The bird is usually small and slender with a long tail and the color variations change depending on species. Size may also vary with species, as some of the cuckoo cousins are quite capable of preying on small vertebrates.

In addition to their distinctive look, also common to the cuckoo family is the “Coo! Coo!” sound for which it is famous. Most prefer a forest habitat.  The Common Cockoo has cousins also known as cuckoos, and the cuckoo family includes roadrunners, anis and coucals.

The bird is mostly an insect eater and is generally looked on with favor around the world, even though it is something of a parasite to other birds.  Most varieties of the cuckoo don’t have their own nests. Instead, they find the nests of other birds and lay their eggs there, hoping the other birds will raise their young for them.

And, apparently, the cuckoo policy of placing the children in foster care immediately before their hacking has worked for generations of young cuckoos.

Some varieties of the bird even have the ability to change the color of the eggs they lay to mask them more thoroughly to the adoptive mother.  A mother cuckoo, for example, would spend her lifetime laying her eggs in the nests of robins and her eggs would be the same blue color as a robin’s.  That cuckoo’s offspring would likely also choose robins as the foster parents for its offspring as well and continue to lay blue eggs.

To make matters worse for the adoptive parents, cuckoo eggs tend to hatch faster and the chicks grow more quickly than the eggs and chicks of their adoptive parents. Often, this means that the host’s eggs or chicks are evicted from the nest while she tends the young cuckoo.

In medieval Europe the cuckoo also had the distinction of being the bird associated with women of low virtue.  There is a traditional medieval song, bawdy and sung with gusto at renaissance fair’s, that talks with relish about boys who leave behind the makings of a young cuckoo.   Historically, this may reflect the nature of the cuckoo to lay the eggs and then leave them behind.

 

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