How to Identify a Cuckoo

There are 127 species of birds in the cuckoo family, one of them the infamous road runner. While endowed with fine singing voices, these birds wouldn't win any congeniality contests. Many cuckoos are "brood parasites," which means they don't bother building their own nests. They simply drop their eggs into other birds' nests for them to raise. Once the cuckoo chicks arrive, they toss out the host's chicks.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Look at photos of various types of cuckoos. Most are gray, although some species are emerald green. They have slender bodies, strong legs and a long tail.

2. Research the origins of the cuckoo. Starting in Africa, they migrate to Europe and Asia in the summer and spend their winters back in Africa.

3. Know what makes the cuckoo palate so unique. They like insects, especially caterpillars, the latter which most birds would reject. Those that spend more time on the ground eat snakes, lizards, small rodents and other birds, which they crush with their very strong, down turned bills.

4. Watch what could be the plot of an Alfred Hitchcock thriller. The female cuckoo stakes out other birds, especially the Reed Warbler, watching their comings and goings as the birds build their nests. She times her egg laying with that of the Reed Warbler female, swoops down, pushes one of the Reed Warbler's eggs out of the nest and replaces it with one of her own.

5. Know the cuckoo's habits. The female can hijack up to 20 other birds' nests to use for her own eggs. And she passes on this trick to her chicks, which are usually larger than the Reed Warbler chicks because they eat more. Cuckoo chicks will not only roll the other birds' eggs out of the nest, they will also push out the other chicks.

Tips & Warnings

• The word "cuckold" actually comes from the cuckoo's practice of deceiving other birds into raising their young as their own.

Resources

• Cornell University's Ornithology department.