Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Cuculiformes > Cuculidae > Cuculus > Cuculus canorus

Cuculus canorus (Common Cuckoo)

Synonyms: Cuculus canorus kleinschmidti

Wikipedia Abstract

The common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) (formerly European cuckoo) 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; since that species is a predator, the mimicry gives the female time to lay her eggs without being seen to do so.
View Wikipedia Record: Cuculus canorus

Infraspecies

Cuculus canorus bakeri
Cuculus canorus bangsi
Cuculus canorus canorus (Common cuckoo)
Cuculus canorus subtelephonus

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
2
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
16
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 5.22524
EDGE Score: 1.82861
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  111 grams
Birth Weight [2]  3.2 grams
Female Weight [6]  106 grams
Male Weight [6]  117 grams
Weight Dimorphism [6]  10.4 %
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Frugivore
Diet - Fruit [3]  10 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  90 %
Forages - Canopy [3]  20 %
Forages - Mid-High [3]  40 %
Forages - Understory [3]  20 %
Forages - Ground [3]  20 %
Clutch Size [2]  9
Clutches / Year [4]  12
Fledging [4]  19 days
Incubation [7]  12 days
Mating Display [2]  Ground and non-acrobatic aerial display
Maximum Longevity [5]  13 years
Migration [8]  Intercontinental
Wing Span [7]  23 inches (.58 m)
Female Maturity [5]  1 year
Male Maturity [5]  1 year

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

+ Click for partial list (100)Full list (618)

Ecosystems

Biodiversity Hotspots

Prey / Diet

Aglais io (European Peacock)[9]
Stenurella melanura[9]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Accipiter gentilis (Northern Goshawk)[10]
Falco eleonorae (Eleonora's Falcon)[11]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

Audio

Play / PauseVolume
Provided by Xeno-canto under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 2.5 License Author: Wouter Halfwerk

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Storchová, Lenka; Hořák, David (2018), Data from: Life-history characteristics of European birds, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n6k3n
♦ 2Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 4Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 5de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 6Cramp, S.; Simmons, K.E.L.; Perrins, C.M. 1977-1994. Handbook of the birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa Vols 1-9. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
♦ 7British Trust for Ornithology
♦ 8Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 9Ecology of Commanster
♦ 10Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 11STATUS, DISTRIBUTION, AND DIET OF ELEONORA’S FALCON (FALCO ELEONORAE) IN THE CANARY ISLANDS, Leandro De León, Beneharo Rodríguez, Aurelio Martín, Manuel Nogales, Jesús Alonso, and Carlos Izquierdo, Journal of Raptor Research 41(4):331-336 2007
♦ 12Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
♦ 13International Flea Database
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Audio software provided by SoundManager 2
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0