Diederik cuckoo either "cuprea" (coppery) or "capensis" (of Cape of Good Hope). The English name is an onomatopoeic rendition of its call. Diederik cuckoo The Diederik cuckoo ("Chrysococcyx caprius"), formerly dideric cuckoo or didric cuckoo, and sometimes called Diederik's cuckoo, is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, the Cuculiformes, which also includes the roadrunners and the anis. The diederik cuckoo is a smallish cuckoo at 18 to 20 cm. Adult males are glossy green above with copper-sheened areas on the back and whitish underparts. They have a broken white eye-stripe and a short, green malar stripe. All remiges have three
The Cuckoo (song) and early summer, and its distinctive call was considered the first sign of spring. It is a nest parasite, and the female really does eat an egg of the host species when she lays her own egg in the nest. It is an important bird in folklore. The cuckoo has traditionally been associated with sexual incontinence and infidelity. An old name for the cuckoo was "cuckold's chorister", and old broadsides played on the idea that the cuckoo's call was a reproach to husbands whose wives were unfaithful: The smith that on his anvill the iron hard doth ding: He cannot