Name

Cuculus canorus

Common cuckoo

Framing

Phylum: Chordata

Subphylum: Vertebrata

Class: Aves

Order: Cuculiformes

Genus: Cuculus

Species: canorus

Habitat

Wooded or shrubby formations of all types.

Feeding

Free. Solitary. Insectivore, specialised in eating lepidopteran larvae.

Distribution

Breeding throughout the Palaearctic and wintering in the Eastern and Ethiopic regions south of the equator.

Conservation status

Not threatened

Additional information

Medium-sized bird (34 cm) with long tail, short zygodactyl legs, with uniform grey dorsal colouring and white ventral parts barred with dark. Typical flight with short, very fast short hops that do not rise above the plane of the body. Quite secretive, it often reveals its presence by its typical song, a repeated "cuckoo". Does not build nests or care for its young, depositing eggs in insectivorous passerine nests (brood parasitism). Summer.