Bird name:

Common Cuckoo

Cuculus canorus

Order

CUCULIFORMES

Family

Cuckoos and Roadrunners (Cuculidae)

Code 4

COCU

Code 6

CUCCAN

ITIS

177822

Breeding Location:

Bushes, shrubs, and thickets, Forest

Breeding Type:

Promiscuous

Breeding Population:

Accidental to casual

Egg Color:

White or can match egg color of host

Number of Eggs:

8 - 25

Incubation Days:

11.13

Egg Incubator:

Nest Material:

Grasses, leaves.

Migration:

Migratory

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General

Common Cuckoo: Large cuckoo with gray upperparts and paler underparts with dark bars on belly. Wings are dark gray; tail is dark gray with faint spotting on outer edges near base. Female is similar but with buff breast or may be red-brown with dark bars overall. Juvenile is dark gray washed with brown.

Range and Habitat

Common Cuckoo: Native of Eurasia; casual visitor to the Pribilofs and Aleutians; accidental in Massachusetts.

Breeding and Nesting

Common Cuckoo: Nest parasite: eight to twenty-five eggs are laid each season in nests of other species. Incubation ranges from 11 to 13 days and is carried out by host species. Eggs are white or match the color of the host species.

Foraging and Feeding

Common Cuckoo: Eats hairy caterpillars and other insects; forages in open trees and shrubs.

Vocalization

Common Cuckoo: Male sings "coo-koo"; female has a loud chirping, gurgling trill "klu-klu-klu."

Similar Species

Common Cuckoo: Oriental Cuckoo has darker upperparts, paler underparts, and buff undertail coverts.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Underparts

Belly, undertail coverts, chest, flanks, and foreneck.

Upperparts

Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.

Belly

The ventral part of the bird, or the area between the flanks on each side and the crissum and breast. Flight muscles are located between the belly and the breast.

Breast

The upper front part of a bird.

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America