Cuckoos
The cuckoos includes the turacos (family Musophagidae, sometimes treated as a separate order, Musophagiformes). Some zoologists and taxonomists have also included the unique Hoatzin in the Cuculiformes, but its taxonomy remains in dispute.
The cuckoo family gets its English and scientific names from the call of the Common Cuckoo, which is also familiar from cuckoo clocks.
The cuckoo family, in addition to those species named as such, also includes the roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separated as distinct families, the Centropodidae and Crotophagidae respectively.
Most occur in forests, but some prefer more open country. The majority are arboreal, with a sizeable minority that are terrestrial.
The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, with the majority of species being tropical. The temperate species are migratory.
Many species are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other species. The best-known example is the European Common Cuckoo. The cuckoo egg hatches earlier than the host's, and the cuckoo chick grows faster; in most cases the chick evicts the eggs or young of the host species.
However, the majority of species raise their own young, such as the roadrunners, anis and coucals which build their own nests, as do most American cuckoos.
Female parasitic-cuckoos seem to specialize and lay eggs that closely resemble the eggs of their chosen host. Parasitic cuckoos are grouped into gentes, with each gente specializing in a particular host. There is some evidence that the gentes are genetically different from one another.
Non-parasitic cuckoos, like most other non-passerines, lay white eggs, but many of the parasitic species lay colored eggs to match those of their passerine hosts.
Most of these species nest in trees or bushes, but the coucals lay their eggs in nests on the ground or in low shrubs.
Diet:
Most cuckoos are insectivorous; and in particular are specialised in eating larger insects and caterpillars, including noxious hairy types avoided by other birds. They are unusual amongst birds in processing their prey prior to swallowing, rubbing it back and forth on hard objects such as branches and then crushing it with special bony plates in the back of the mouth. They will also take a wide range of other insects and animal prey. The lizard-cuckoos of the Caribbean have, in the relative absence of birds of prey, specialised in taking lizards.
Larger, ground types such as coucals and roadrunners also feed variously on snakes, lizards, small rodents, and other birds, which they bludgeon with their strong bills. The parasitic cuckoos are generally not recorded as participating in mixed-species feeding flocks, although some studies in eastern Australia found several species would participate in the non-breeding season, but were mobbed and unable to do so in the breeding season.
Ground-cuckoos of the genus Neomorphus are sometimes seen feeding in association with army ant swarms, although they are not obligate ant-followers as are some antbirds. The anis are ground feeders that follow cattle and other large mammals when foraging; in a similar fashion to Cattle Egrets they snatch prey flushed by the cattle and enjoy higher foraging success rates in this way.
Several koels, couas and the Channel-billed Cuckoo feed mainly on fruit, but they are not exclusively frugivores. The parasitic koels and Channel-billed Cuckoo in particular consume mainly fruit when raised by fruigivore hosts such as the Figbird and Pied Currawong. Other species will occasionally take fruit as well.
Calls
Cuckoos are often highly secretive and in many cases best known for their wide repertoire of calls. Calls are usually relatively simple, resembling whistles, flutes, or hiccups] The calls are used in order to demonstrate ownership of a territory and to attract a mate. Within a species the calls are remarkably consistent across the range, even in species with very large ranges. This suggests, along with the fact that many species are not raised by their true parents, that the calls of cuckoos are innate and not learnt. Although cuckoos are diurnal, many species call at night. The cuckoo family gets its English and scientific names from the call of the Common Cuckoo, which is also familiar from cuckoo clocks. Some of the names of other species and genera are also derived from their calls, for example the koels of Asia and Australasia. In most cuckoos the calls are distinctive to particular species, and are useful for identification. Several cryptic species are best identified on the basis of their calls.
Description:
The cuckoos are generally slender birds of variable size, with long tails and strong legs.
Cuckoo genera differ in the number of primary wing feathers as below.
- Phaenicophaeus, Coccyzus, Piaya - 9
- Cuculus - 9 or 10
- Hierococcyx, Pachycoccyx, Clamator levaillantii, Centropus - 10
- Microdynamis, Eudynamys, Clamator glandarius - 11
- Some coucals - 12
- Scythrops novaehollandiae - 13
Species list
-
Subfamily Cuculinae - Brood-parasitic cuckoos
- Genus Eocuculus - fossil (Late Eocene of Teller County, USA)
- Genus Clamator (4 species)
- Genus Pachycoccyx - Thick-billed Cuckoo
- Genus Cuculus - typical cuckoos (some 15 species)
- Genus Cercococcyx - Long-tailed Cuckoos (3 species)
- Genus Cacomantis (8 species)
- Genus Chrysococcyx - bronze cuckoos (12 species)
- Genus Rhamphomantis - Long-billed Cuckoo: The Long-billed Cuckoo is monotypic (a genus consisting of only one species) within the genus Rhamphomantis. It is found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
- Genus Surniculus - drongo-cuckoos (2 species)
- Genus Caliechthrus - White-crowned Koel The White-crowned Koel (Caliechthrus leucolophus) is monotypic (one single species) within the genus Caliechthrus. It is found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea
- Genus Microdynamis - Dwarf Koel : The Dwarf Koel (Microdynamis parva) is monotypic (one single species) within the genus Microdynamis. It is found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea
- Genus Eudynamys - true koels (2-5 species, one extinct)
- Genus Scythrops - Channel-billed Cuckoo
- Subfamily Phaenicophaeinae - Malkohas and couas
- Genus Ceuthmochares - Yellowbill
- Genus Phaenicophaeus - malkohas (12 species)
- Genus Carpococcyx - Asian ground-cuckoos (3 species)
- Genus Coua - couas (9 living species, 1 recently extinct)
- Subfamily Coccyzinae - American cuckoos
- Subfamily Neomorphinae - Typical ground-cuckoos
- Genus Neococyx - fossil (Early Oligocene of C North America)
- Genus Tapera - Striped Cuckoo
- Genus Dromococcyx (2 species)
- Genus Morococcyx - Lesser Ground-cuckoo
- Genus Geococcyx - roadrunners (2 species)
- Genus Neomorphus - Neotropical ground-cuckoos (5 species)
- Subfamily Centropodinae - Coucals
- Genus Centropus (some 30 species)
- Subfamily Crotophaginae - Anis
- Genus Crotophaga - true anis (3 species)
- Genus Guira - Guira Cuckoo
- Unassigned
- Genus Dynamopterus - fossil (Late Eocene/Early Oligocene of Caylus, France)
- Genus Cursoricoccyx - fossil (Early Miocene of Logan County, USA) - Neomorphinae?
- Cuculidae gen. et sp. indet. - fossil (Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, USA: Olson 1985)
- Genus Nannococcyx - Saint Helena Cuckoo (extinct)
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