Bird, bug, butterfly and a wild variety of photos from Belarus, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Scotland and Spain by Irish wildlife photographer Patrick J. O'Keeffe and invited guests

Showing posts with label Common Cuckoo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Common Cuckoo. Show all posts

Wednesday, 14 December 2016

COMMON CUCKOO or EURASIAN CUCKOO (Cuculus canorus) Akrotiri Peninsula, Crete, Greece


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Click external link here for detailed species information
Click external link here to see distribution map and to hear calls
 
The Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) is of the family Cuculidae which is in the genus Cuculus. It is a summer visitor to Eurasia that spends the winter in sub Saharan Africa as well as parts of southern Asia.  
This species mimics the Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) both in size and appearance. It doesn't build a nest of its own but instead it is a brood parasite specialising in laying single eggs in the nests of other species, typicially that of Dunnock (Prunella modularis), Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis) or Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaceus). Its eggs, although larger, mimic the colour of the hosts eggs.
 
Patrick J. O'Keeffe / Raw Birds
 
Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) distribution map
 
 
Breeding - summer      Non breeding - winter 
 
SanoAK: Alexander Kürthy, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons