Common cuckoo Common cuckoo The common cuckoo ("Cuculus canorus") is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, "Cuculiformes", which includes the roadrunners, the anis and the coucals. This species is a widespread summer migrant to Europe and Asia, and winters in Africa. It is a brood parasite, which means it lays eggs in the nests of other bird species, particularly of dunnocks, meadow pipits, and reed warblers. Although its eggs are larger than those of its hosts, the eggs in each type of host nest resemble the host's eggs. The adult too is a mimic, in its case of the sparrowhawk;
Jacobin cuckoo Jacobin cuckoo The Jacobin cuckoo, pied cuckoo, or pied crested cuckoo ("Clamator jacobinus") is a member of the cuckoo order of birds that is found in Africa and Asia. It is partially migratory and in India, it has been considered a harbinger of the monsoon rains due to the timing of its arrival. It has been associated with a bird in Indian mythology and poetry, known as the "chataka" (Sanskrit: चातक) represented as a bird with a beak on its head that waits for rains to quench its thirst. The Jacobin cuckoo was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc,