Something Wild
12:00 am
Fri July 26, 2013

The Company Of Cuckoos


Alerted by a black-billed's gentle "cucucu" notes, one just might get a look at a bird, about the size of a robin, but slender, with a long, graceful tail that sets it apart. A black, curved bill is backed by an eye with a bright red eye-ring that lends the bird a constantly startled look.

The Black-Billed Cuckoo
Credit Wikimedia Commons

The old-time nickname for the species was “rain crow,” used  generations back when people led their lives more outdoors than indoors. In those days, a farmer debating whether or not to hay knew to tune in to the "rain crow"-- they knew cuckoos sing on days that promise rain. Now, with weather channels to reference, we do not always pay attention to the weather clues that nature provides.

Cuckoos are also a farmer's friend in that their preferred diet is a unique one—hairy caterpillars. In years of gypsy moth and tent caterpillar outbreaks, cuckoos lay more eggs and produce more young. Back in the era of the "rain crow," when cuckoos were common, flocks would mob a tree infested with caterpillars and consume them all.

A species newly in decline, no longer common on their breeding or wintering grounds, their presence close by is all the more satisfying to discover.

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