The cuckoo is a bird known to almost everyone. She is quite restless, avoids the company of her own kind and does not like to communicate with other birds.

The cuckoo's diet consists of insects, especially larvae. Her favorite dish is furry caterpillars, which other birds “disdain” (the hairs of these caterpillars, when digesting food, are firmly stuck into the walls of the stomach). This kind of food is absolutely unsuitable for many birds. The destruction of furry caterpillars is an undoubted help of the cuckoo to its native nature.

Since ancient times, the cuckoo has been an example of the wrong attitude of parents towards children. She has a peculiar view of her own offspring. Cuckoos never build nests for themselves and do not hatch chicks. They lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. Having laid an egg on the ground, the cuckoo takes it in its beak and, flying unnoticed to the nest of a bird, places it there in the absence of the owners.

Cuckoo eggs are surprisingly similar in size and color to the eggs of the birds in whose nests they lay them. This is explained by the fact that in certain areas, cuckoos adapt to lay eggs in the nests of only certain species of birds.

It has been established that mothers leave their eggs in the nests of at least 170 different species of birds. In one place they can lay eggs only in the nests of, say, robins, wagtails and buntings, in another place - wrens and warblers, and in a third - wood pigeons or grebes.

The loss of the instinct to build a nest, incubate chicks and feed them is apparently associated with the peculiarities of laying eggs by the cuckoo. She lays eggs for a very long time - several weeks and their number can be quite significant - up to 20-22. Of course, if she herself incubated, this method would greatly disrupt the development of the eggs.

So she adapted to laying eggs in other people's nests. And this, in turn, led to the development of new instincts in the cuckoo: finding other people’s nests, carrying eggs in its beak and laying them in someone else’s nest, and it places only one egg in each nest. From here arose such species features as the small size of the eggs compared to the size of the bird itself, the compaction of their shells and a wide variety in size, shape and color.

There are more than 12 main color options for cuckoo eggs, depending on the color of the eggs of the birds to which the cuckoos throw their eggs.

Cuckoo children are like their parents. They also developed specific innate reflexes, instincts associated with being raised in someone else's nest. Soon after the cuckoo hatches from the egg, it begins to throw eggs or other chicks - its foster brothers - out of the nest. He does it this way: he crawls under the chick and, when it finds itself in a special depression on its back, it begins to back away to the edge of the nest. And then with a strong push he throws him down. This fate awaits all the chicks until the cuckoo is left alone in the nest. He is raised alone by foster parents, sometimes much smaller in size than their voracious foundling.

From the stories of I.F. Zayanchkovsky

The Nature Conservation Union NABU and the Bavarian Bird Conservation Association reported,
that the cuckoo was declared bird of the year 2008.
I’ll dedicate today’s 10 facts to her.

1. The most famous fact about the cuckoo: it does not build its own nests and lays its eggs in others.

The formation of the cuckoo's egg is triggered by the sight of the teacher's nest being built. And after 7-9 days she puts it on. If the nest is large and strong, the cuckoo simply sits in it and immediately lays an egg (and throws one out of the owner’s clutch). She cannot lay an egg in small nests, especially those with a roof or located in a hollow, where she cannot get through. You have to do this on the ground, and then, taking it in your beak, put it in place.

2. The cuckoo, being still blind, deaf and completely naked, resolves its housing problems by throwing eggs or chicks of its owners out of the nest - replacing several chicks of another species with more numerous offspring.
The throwing instinct lasts 3-4 days and then fades away. But even if the chicks of their adoptive parents were not “overboard,” they are still doomed: the cuckoo chicks will intercept all the food that is brought to them.

reed warbler feeding a young cuckoo
Photo AR

3. A curious feature of the cuckoo breed is the almost complete absence of a “voice” in the female. She makes a characteristic gurgling trill, but the males cuckoo loudly.

4. An adult cuckoo eats up to a hundred caterpillars in an hour, and works like this for ten hours. And if a lot of pests appear in the forest where it lives, then the bird will work until it destroys all the insects.

5. Scorpion venom is absolutely harmless to the cuckoo. And some species of these birds also feed on snakes.

6. Cuckoos are different.

The American Ground Cuckoo, the California Runner and the Indo-Ceylon Spur, although they are also cuckoos, lead a completely different lifestyle. These birds create pairs, build nests and hatch chicks.

7. The cuckoo clock is a symbol not only of Russia, but also of Germany. A huge selection of wooden birds can be found anywhere here. The vibrant production of wooden cuckoo clocks began in the Black Forest in the 17th century. While all over Germany, following the fashion, clocks were made in the form of sad Gothic towers with an image of a skull, crucifix or death figure on the dial, symbolizing the transience of time, in the Black Forest they began to make cheerful cuckoo clocks. This fact can only be explained by the fact that the south of the country was inhabited not by gloomy Lutherans, but by cheerful Catholics.

It is not known exactly who the founder of watchmaking in the Black Forest is, but there are two popular legends. According to one of them, the first wooden clock was made in 1683 by the monks of St. Peter's Abbey, and according to another, it was made already in 1667 by the Kreutz family, who lived near the town of Waldau.

It is known for sure that the device that beats the famous “peek-a-boo” and the bird itself were invented by a master named Ketterer. At first he tried to create a device that imitated the crow of a rooster, but the musical scale turned out to be too complex, and the master settled on a cuckoo, which required only two tones.

8. During the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940. Finnish snipers firing from treetops were called cuckoos.
Cuckoo is also the common name for steam locomotives of the "Ku" series ("Kolomensky reinforced"), produced in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century.

9. The first of April, known to us as “Fools’ Day,” is called “Cuckoo Day” in Scotland.

10. And finally, my favorite point: the cuckoo in mythology (as well as signs, superstitions and other folklore).

In folk beliefs, the image of the cuckoo is attributed to features that connect this bird with the earth and the underworld. In legends, female characters who turn into cuckoos are related to reptiles - snakes and frogs. In some places, Belarusians and Ukrainians believe that the cuckoo does not fly away for the winter, but spends the winter under water or hides underground. The appearance of the cuckoo after winter was perceived in the mythological consciousness as simultaneous with the crawling out of the ground of snakes. In Polesie there were popular beliefs that in the spring the cuckoo “plays” like a husband and wife.

It was widely believed that the cuckoo, having stopped its cuckooing in the fall, turns into a hawk or kite. The Russian phraseological expression “trade a cuckoo for a hawk,” which denotes an unfavorable exchange, correlates with this belief.

Cuckoo's tears (spotted orchis / Lychnis flos cuculi) were often used as a magical remedy to ensure good relations between spouses. They used the root of the herb to guess about the sex of the unborn child; young women also drank a decoction from this root with the words: “Kokushka, give me a son or daughter.”

Everyone knows fortune telling about death, when a bird was asked the question: “How long do I have left to live?” In order for the cuckoo to crow longer and not fly away from the branch, in the southern Russian provinces and in the Smolensk region, cheaters sneaked up unnoticed to the tree and tied it with a belt.

In general, many ideas are associated with the cuckoo's cuckooing in folk culture. Some of them clarify the attribution of mating relations with the nightingale to this bird. Almost everywhere among the Eastern Slavs, the cessation of cuckooing was associated with Peter's Day. According to Russian traditions, the nightingale, like the cuckoo, finishes singing by the same time. According to legends, the singing of these birds is limited to the time of barley ripening, and their silence is explained by the fact that the cuckoo or nightingale has eaten grain and choked on an ear or grain.
In Polesie and Ukraine, there is a widespread belief that the cuckoo stops cuckooing because it is choking on cheese, cheesecake, dumplings or dumplings. These beliefs reflect the custom of breaking the fast with cheese products at the end of Peter's Fast.
The arrival of the cuckoo and its cuckooing were usually timed to coincide with the Annunciation, Maundy Thursday, Easter... In Polesie there was a custom on the Annunciation, when the cuckoo flies, to bake a zozulka - a bird figurine made of dough.

In superstitions and superstitions, cuckooing was often perceived as an ominous omen: a cuckoo cuckooing means grief. Therefore, having heard the cuckoo, in order to ward off trouble, they immediately uttered words of an incantatory nature: you cuckoo well, but on your own head!”

If in the spring you hear the first cuckoo on the right, luck will accompany you, if on the left, luck will leave you for the rest of the year.
If you hear the cuckoo after the summer solstice, it is not good; crow back at her so you don't hear her anymore.
If, after hearing the cuckoo for the first time of the year, you shake the money in your wallet, the money in it will not be transferred until you hear the cuckoo next time.

I collected examples mainly from Russian mythology, but the image of the cuckoo among other peoples is not much different. In both Denmark and Sweden, the bird is tortured for longevity; in Japan, it is considered a traveler to the next world, closely associated with death. And she cries for misfortune, for pestilence, and for fire.

At the same time, positive magical properties were attributed to the branch on which the cuckoo sat and cuckooed, and it was used as a talisman against misfortune.

The Eastern Slavs had curious beliefs about the role of the cuckoo among other birds. Like the others, she flies away for the winter to Vyrey - a distant warm land by the sea. She flies away first and returns last in the spring, for which she is considered the housekeeper, the keeper of the keys to the vault.

As usual, the information was collected on the Internet.
The myths are mostly borrowed from the book "Russian Mythology. Encyclopedia" edited by Elena Madlevskaya.

Cuckoo, cuckoo, how many years do I have left? Probably every person in our country has heard about the legend that says that it can predict the future. What is unique about this beautiful bird? What new research is related to it? And where did the history of studying the cuckoo family begin?

• The species of common cuckoo was first described by the recognized king of taxonomy, the outstanding biologist and creator of the first artificial classification, Carl Linnaeus in 1758.
• Even ancient scientists noticed the similarity of the cuckoo with a hawk (for example, with a sparrowhawk). A similar circumstance led the famous scientist, thinker Aristotle, to the idea that the hawk and the cuckoo are nothing more than different incarnations of the same creature. It was Aristotle who first described the behavior of birds.
• The cuckoo first appeared on movie screens in 1922 in the film “The Cuckoo's Secret” (with the participation of American directors).

Vocal characteristics of the cuckoo

• Surprisingly, for most of the year the cuckoo is quite silent. Only in the first months of summer do males and females become noticeable thanks to their voice.
• The famous “ku-ku” sound is made by males; females produce trills and low whistles (“Kli-kli” or “Bil”).
• Cuckoos live 10-12 years.
• Cuckoos eat various insects: poisonous hairy caterpillars, adult butterflies and their pupae, beetles and their larvae, small reptiles (lizards), eggs of ants and birds (which is necessary for the possibility of procreation), grasshoppers, small worms. But this agile bird will not refuse sweet berries.

It is probably a generally known fact that the cuckoo lays its eggs in the nests of other birds. Moreover, the size of the birds does not matter at all (from a miniature kinglet to an impressive thrush).

The main criteria for choosing “foster parents” are: the chick type of development of the offspring, a suitable shape and location of the nest and the method of transferring food (from the beak of adults to the beak of chicks).

Potential parents for the cuckoo chick: wagtail, redstart, robin, warbler, warbler, shrike, stonechat, finch, lark, nightingale, flycatcher and mockingbird.

Scientists at the beginning of the twenty-first century developed a hypothesis that states that female cuckoos, in addition to the species classification, are divided into special ecological lines(Where each of them, in a special W-chromosome in the form of a nucleotide sequence, contains information about the size, color of the egg and the vocal capabilities of the chick, allowing it to imitate the cackle of all possible offspring of the very bird that should become a full-fledged parent for the cuckoo, but in the case influence of the driving form of natural selection, a combination of gene sets from different groups occurs.).

• Another equally interesting fact: a bird goes to its native biotope to procreate due to the influence of instinct. Also, with the help of the same sense, the cuckoo finds the species of birds that once fed it.
• The cuckoo begins to prepare to lay eggs immediately after it finds a suitable nest and a “parental pair”.
• If she fails to do this, the bird lays the egg on the ground or throws it into a completely random nest (under such circumstances, the probability of survival of the cuckoo chick is only twenty percent).
• It only takes 10-15 seconds for a cuckoo to lay an egg. (But the bird not only lays an egg, but steals and subsequently eats one of the eggs in the nest. If the victim’s chicks are about to hatch, the cuckoo eats the entire clutch at once, thus staging the repeated process of egg formation.)
• During the summer, the cuckoo lays about ten eggs (when using artificial conditions, their number can increase to twenty-five).
• There are fifteen main types of color of cuckoo eggs (pale pink, lilac, white, beige, blue, brown, dark brown, speckled and without). All this, as mentioned earlier, is provided for in the genes.
• The incubation period is 11-12 days. Weight from two to four grams.
• The chick (and not brood) type of development is characteristic. The skin is bare (without the initial downy cover), the oral cavity is orange, blindness and deafness are pronounced.
• The need for the blind and deaf cuckoo to throw out other people's eggs has not yet been clarified.
• It is very interesting that if the female victim sees a substitution, she can throw someone else’s egg out of the clutch, but she cannot do anything about the hatched chick: she will continue to feed it until a certain time.
• “Foster parents” usually feed the cuckoo chicks longer (on average about three weeks) than if they were their own chicks.

Morphological features

• Previously, the external resemblance to a hawk was already noted (however, experienced ornithologists note differences in the structure of the tail).
• The cuckoo is also very similar to the woodpecker in the structure of its lower limbs: the first two fingers are directed forward, the other two are directed back (this anatomical feature gives it the ability to stay on a vertical surface).

Distribution area

The inhabited biotopes are diverse, but evolutionary scientists believe that cuckoos originally lived in forest areas.

This bird is unique in many ways. Many mysteries in her behavior have been solved thanks to the talent of scientists and modern technologies, while others have yet to be revealed. In the meantime, the cuckoo will continue to predict to each of us how many years we still have left to live in this world.

The story about the cuckoo for children can be used in preparation for the lesson. The message about the cuckoo can be supplemented with interesting facts.

Report about the cuckoo

The cuckoo is a bird known to almost everyone because of its relationship with its offspring.

Description of the cuckoo

There are from 140 to 200 representatives of the cuckoo family. Bird sizes vary from less than 20 cm to 60-70 cm. Most cuckoos have a body length of no more than 40 cm and a weight of about 100 g.

The beak of these birds is of medium size, slightly curved downwards, with smooth edges. Thanks to the wide slit of the beak, birds can catch insects in flight, as well as swallow large prey. Birds' eyes are brown, red, yellow, hazel or brown. Some species have a crest on the head.

The body of birds is thin. The tail is long, but its dimensions do not exceed the length of the wing. It can be stepped or rounded. The wings of cuckoos are usually long and sharp. The short legs of cuckoos can be yellow, orange or red.

The colors include gray, white, brown, red, rusty and ocher. The body is generally darker on top, while the belly and undertail are lighter or white. Often the plumage is not monochromatic, but has streaks; more or less pronounced stripes may be present on the throat and belly.

The average cuckoo lives 5-10 years. But there are cases where some individuals lived to be 35 or even 40 years old.

What does a cuckoo eat?

The cuckoo's diet consists of insects, especially larvae. Her favorite dish is furry caterpillars, which other birds “disdain” (the hairs of these caterpillars, when digesting food, are firmly stuck into the walls of the stomach). And by eating such caterpillars, the cuckoo helps nature.

Cuckoo: breeding

Cuckoos do not build nests and do not hatch chicks. They lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. Having laid an egg on the ground, the cuckoo takes it in its beak and, flying unnoticed to the nest of some bird, places it there. She lays only one egg in each alien nest.

It has been established that cuckoos throw their eggs into the nests of about 170 species of birds. The color of cuckoo eggs can be solid or variegated, brown, white, blue, green, etc. It completely matches the color of the eggs of the birds that the cuckoo throws to its children.

Why does the cuckoo throw eggs into other people's nests?

The cuckoo lays eggs for a very long time - several weeks and their number can be quite significant - up to 20-25. Of course, if she had incubated it herself, she would have had to sit in the nest all summer. Chicks of different sizes would not live together in the same nest. And their parents would not be able to feed such a number of gluttons.

The cuckoo flies to Africa in winter. Birds most often fly not in flocks, but alone.

There are species of cuckoos that hatch and feed their chicks themselves.

To place its egg among strangers, the cuckoo throws out one of the stranger’s eggs from the clutch and replaces it with its own. She can also throw out all the hatched eggs from someone else's nest, forcing the birds to lay eggs again, and then throw her egg into a fresh clutch.

Newborn cuckoo chicks, only a few hours old, throw out of the nest everything that is there, namely: chicks or eggs of the nest owners. This fate awaits all the chicks and eggs until the cuckoo is left alone in the nest. He is raised alone by foster parents, sometimes much smaller in size than their voracious foundling.

In some species of cuckoos, the chicks do not throw out their half-brothers, but trample them or deprive them of food.

For many peoples, the cuckoo is a symbol of suffering, widowhood, misfortune and longing for the past. She can predict an unhappy marriage, a bad harvest, or lack of money. In other versions, on the contrary, this bird predicts a happy marriage, a rich harvest, long summers and is a symbol of spring. It is believed that the cuckoo flies south first and returns from there, because it holds the keys to Iria (Vyria), a mythical warm southern country where birds and snakes winter, and where the souls of the dead are found.

We hope the information presented about the cuckoo helped you. You can leave your report about the cuckoo using the comment form.

The cuckoo is a bird from the subclass Neopalatae, the cuckoo family, or cuckoos (lat. Cuculidae). The article provides a description of the family.

The word "cuckoo" comes from the sound "cuckoo" pronounced by the bird. Its name is similar among many nations: kukuvica - in Bulgaria, kukačka - in the Czech Republic, Kuckuck - in Germany, coucou - in France, cucul - in Romania, cuculo - in Italy, cuckoo - in Great Britain.

Cuckoo - description and photo. What does a cuckoo bird look like?

According to various sources, from 140 to 200 representatives of the cuckoo family live in different parts of the world. The sizes of birds vary from less than 20 cm to 60-70 cm. Most cuckoos have a body length of no more than 40 cm and a weight of about 100 g. The maximum weight of the largest cuckoo, the gigantic one, is 0.93 kg.

The beak of cuckoos is of medium size, slightly curved downwards, with smooth edges. Thanks to the wide slit of the beak, birds can catch insects in flight, as well as swallow large prey. Birds' eyes are brown, red, yellow, hazel or brown. Some species have a crest on the head.

The body of birds is thin. The tail is long, but its dimensions do not exceed the length of the wing. It can be stepped or rounded.

The wings of cuckoos are usually long and sharp, but some species (for example, Geococcyx californicus) have short and weak wings.

The short legs of cuckoos can be yellow, orange or red. The toes are directed in pairs: the first and fourth are backward, the second and third are forward. Although, it happens that the fourth finger is also directed forward.

The plumage of cuckoos is hard and there is little fluff. On the legs the feathers are long, forming “pants”. The colors include gray, white, brown, red, rusty and ocher.

The body is generally darker on top, while the belly and undertail are lighter or white. Often the plumage is not monochromatic, but has streaks; more or less pronounced stripes may be present on the throat and belly. Males and females of many species are similar in color.

Cuckoos fly very fast, these birds are very active, noisy and voracious. They are on the move almost all the time and sleep little. Some species of cuckoos fly little, but move quickly on the ground.

Cuckoo call

Cuckoos usually make sounds during the mating season. In temperate latitudes they can be heard in spring and summer. In common cuckoos, the usual “cuckoo” or “cuckoo” sound is made by the males. Before cuckooing, which sounds loud and can be heard from a distance, males can make a quiet sound similar to laughter: “ha-ha-ha.” Birds can poo for quite a long time, up to 60 times in a row. The female’s voice sounds like a trill: “ke-ke-ke”, “kli-kli-kli”, “bil-bil-bil”. Outside the mating season, these birds are silent. Different species of cuckoos have different sounds: for example, a deaf cuckoo pronounces a dull “boo-boo-boo-boo” or “doo-doo-doo”, the call of a coel sounds like “kooel”, the larval ani calls “ani-ani”, etc. d.

Where does the cuckoo live?

The habitat of cuckoos covers all continents, with the exception of the Arctic and Antarctic. The birds are found in Asia, Africa, Russia, North and South America, and Australia. They are common in the forests and steppes of European countries and even occupy the southern part of the tundra. Cuckoos, found in Europe and northern parts of Asia, are migratory. The largest number of species live in hot southern latitudes. Here birds lead a sedentary or nomadic lifestyle.

Cuckoos live in reeds, bushes, woody vegetation, some species are found and make nests on the ground. The habitat of cuckoos extends from lowlands and sea coastlines to high mountain forests, where the number of passerines is declining and, accordingly, the number of cuckoos is decreasing.

What does a cuckoo eat?

The diet of cuckoos is varied. Some species are carnivores and feed exclusively on insects and their larvae (stick insects, cicadas, termites); other species also feed on plants. In addition, cuckoos eat, including poisonous ones (for example), small reptiles (), amphibians (), small mammals (), worms, crabs, and bird eggs. There are species that feed mainly on berries, fruits and seeds. Unlike many other birds, the stomach of cuckoos allows them to eat hairy animals (for example, gypsy moths), whose body is covered with bristles. Cuckoos bring invaluable benefits to the forest, eating pests in huge quantities, which can completely destroy the foliage on trees in a short time. As a result of such feeding, the birds' stomach is completely covered with bristles, but the cuckoos periodically regurgitate them along with gastric mucus.

Lifespan of cuckoos

It is believed that the cuckoo lives on average 5-10 years. But there are cases where some individuals lived to be 35 or even 40 years old.

Types of cuckoos, names and photographs

Below is a description of several varieties of cuckoos from the family Cuculidae.

• Common cuckoo(lat.Cuculus canorus) - a widespread species that lives in Russia (from the Urals to Kamchatka in the east and the borders of the tundra in the north), in Europe (everywhere except the far north), in Asia (in Turkey, the Caucasus, China, Korea, Japan, in places Central Asia). Common cuckoos are migratory birds. They winter in Central and Southern Africa, Southern Arabia, Southern Asia, reaching Australia.

The body length of the bird reaches 33-40 cm. The wing length of females varies from 20 to 23 cm, for males - from 21.5 to 25 cm. The tail is long - 15-19 cm, rounded, stepped. Beak – 1.6 – 2.4 cm in length. Common cuckoos weigh from 80 to 120 g. The color of plumage varies between males and females, as well as between young, adult and old individuals. Males are colored in shades of gray, with a white or light gray belly and undertail, which have transverse stripes. Older females are colored the same, but have a brown tint. In young females, the coloration is dominated by rusty-red tones; there are bright black or red stripes on the abdomen, throat and undertail, and there may be ocher streaks on the lower back and wings. The edges of the eyelids and eyes of all individuals are yellow. Only the young have brown ones, and the red females have nut-like ones.

Common cuckoos cause harm by reducing the number of birds into whose nests they lay their eggs. But the benefits they bring are incomparably greater. By eating huge quantities of hairy caterpillars, they save forests from this terrible enemy.

• Little cuckoo(lat.Cuculus poliocephalus) - a species that lives in the south of Primorye Russia and in Asia: in the Himalayas (from the borders with Afghanistan to the north of Myanmar), in the north of China, in Korea, in the north of Japan. Lesser cuckoos winter in Southern China, India, and the Indochina Peninsula. Some subspecies are found in Madagascar, the Sunda Islands, and South Africa.

In appearance and color, the small cuckoo resembles an ordinary cuckoo, but differs from it in its small size: wing 15-17.1 cm in length, tail 13-14.9 cm, metatarsus 1.7-1.9 cm, beak 1.7- 1.9 cm. Juveniles of the lesser cuckoo differ from juveniles of the common cuckoo by whitish transverse spots on the outer flight feathers and a smaller amount of black-brown color. The eyes of young and old birds are brown.

The lesser cuckoo produces a five or six syllable call that sounds like “pi-pi, pi-pi-yu.”

• American yellow-billed cuckoo(lat. Coccyzus americanus) received its name due to the yellowish color of the mandible and thin, curved beak, as well as due to its habitat. This species breeds in North America and winters in South America.

The carnivorous bird's body size is small, but its tail is long. The top of the cuckoo is brownish with a bronze tint; the belly and stripe on the tail are white.

These cuckoos can throw eggs into other people's nests, but mostly they hatch the eggs themselves. The laying period is very extended. The nest may contain both eggs and chicks ready to fly. In total, the cuckoo lays up to 10 eggs in a nest that it builds itself.

The yellow-billed cuckoo crows in the same way as the common cuckoo, only louder. In general, this bird is very secretive. She often makes her voice before the rain, for which she received the nickname rainbird.

• California ground cuckoo (California running cuckoo, California plantain cuckoo)(lat.Geococcyx californianus) is a rather large bird, reaching a length of 60 cm. It has a large tail and high strong legs, but small and weak wings. The plantain cuckoo has a very peculiar appearance and inconspicuous coloring. Its back is brown with white and red spots, its belly is whitish, and the lower part of its throat is black and mottled. The bird's head is decorated with a modest crest. The unfeathered skin of her face is dark blue, but the orange spot behind her eyes stands out brightly on it. The large beak is equal to the length of the bird's head.

The plantain cuckoo lives in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, in arid, sparsely populated areas: in thickets of cacti on mountain slopes and plains. She flies poorly and rarely, but she runs well, reaching speeds of up to 42 km/h. She spends most of her life like a chicken, on the ground. Here she looks for food for herself - insects, small vertebrates (lizards, mice, etc.). Among the bushes on the ground, the plantain cuckoo builds its nest, using branches and blades of grass to make it.

The female lays 3-9 white eggs, incubating them with the male in turn.

The body length of the gigantic cuckoo reaches 66 cm, and the bird weighs up to 930 g. A distinctive feature of this species is its large, curved beak. The wings and tail are long, like all members of the family. The plumage is mostly grey, ranging from ash and dark gray on the back and wings to light gray on the belly, chest and flanks. The ends of the wings are black, the bottom of the tail and sides have black transverse stripes. The skin around the eyes is bare and reddish or brownish in color. The beak is gray at the base and light at the tip. The eyes of juveniles are brown, while those of adults are red.

Gigantic cuckoos in their habitat lead a nomadic or migratory lifestyle. They live in mangroves, on the edges and outskirts of forests (where eucalyptus and figs grow), along the banks of rivers and sea coasts.

Gigantic cuckoos eat various fruits (figs, mistletoe, mulberries), insects (butterflies, beetles, grasshoppers, stick insects), eggs and newborn chicks, as well as carrion. The eggs are laid mainly in the nests of various birds from the corvid family (, jackdaws), as well as the collared hawk and the Australian grallina. The voice of the gigantic cuckoo sounds like “kuak” followed by drawn-out and accelerating whistles or like a gurgling “klu-klu-klu”.

• Red-billed Ground Cuckoo (lat.Carpococcyx renauldi) - a species leading a terrestrial lifestyle. Habitat: Indochina Peninsula (Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos).

Red-billed cuckoos hatch their chicks themselves. They nest both in trees and on the ground. They feed on small vertebrates.

The body length of the bird is 68 cm. Their plumage is light gray. The neck and tail are dark. The beak and legs are reddish in color. The eyes are yellow. The feathers around the eyes are blue and the skin is purple.

• Koel (koel)(lat.Eudynamys scolopaceus) - a cuckoo that lives in Asia - in the Southeast, India and China, as well as in Australia. It got its name thanks to the sounds made by the males: “koo-ee, koo-el.”

The bird has a very long tail, making up almost half the body length, which is approximately 42 cm. Males and females are brightly colored, but differ from each other. Males are blue-black with a green tint, females are bronze-brown with white spots.

Coels lead a secretive lifestyle, are found in the crowns of tall trees, and when in danger they hide among the foliage. The diet of these birds consists almost exclusively of fruits and berries, which they feed on in the forest or in gardens. These include figs, jujube, mulberries, papaya, guava, capers, tamarind, etc. Insects, bird eggs and snails make up a minor part of the diet.

• Pheasant cuckoo(lat. Centropus phasianinus) - a representative of the cuckoo genus, living in western Indonesia, Australia, and Papua New Guinea. Lives in forests with dense undergrowth and swampy areas with tall, dense grass.

This large bird reaches 70 cm in length and has a long tail. The plumage color is gray-brown.

• Guira (guira) (lat.Guira Guira) is a South American cuckoo that is found south of the Amazon lowland and east of the Andes. Found in countries such as Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina.

The bird is of medium size (35-40 cm), lives in tall trees, builds its own nests and hatches chicks. The plumage of the guira has a gray-brown tint. The beak is yellow at the base and orange at the tip. Adults have a crest on their heads.

• Grooved-billed ani (lat.Crotophaga sulcirostris) - a bird from the cuckoo family that lives in the north of South America and the islands of the Caribbean Sea. Its name reflects external features: grooves running along the large curved beak, and the sound made by the bird - “ani-ani”.

Gross-billed anis eat insects, worms, and catch shellfish in coastal areas. Their diet also includes plant foods.

They reach a length of 33 cm and weigh 70-80 g. The plumage of the sulcata-billed ani is black, with a purple tint. The tail is black, long, with a bluish tint. Eyes and legs are gray.

These cuckoos are distinguished by the fact that they build nests together, hatch chicks and take care of them together. The nest of the sulcata-billed ani is a bowl lined with leaves, which is located near the tree trunk at the height of human height and rests on the side branches. Such a bowl-shaped structure can contain from 15 to 50 eggs. Anis fly little and poorly, but they move quite briskly on the ground. Birds prefer open spaces, hiding in the forest only from the rain. Noticing danger, they quickly hide in the bushes.