Common Cuckoo

We often hear the cuckoo in spring before we see it, and this one was simply perched in the neighbours' garden in April 2025. It is grey with a barred belly and yellow eyes and feet, and in flight it looks surprisingly like a small sparrowhawk. The cuckoo builds no nest: the female lays her eggs one by one in the nests of other birds, such as reed warblers and dunnocks. Such an egg hardly stands out, because its colour resembles the host's eggs. As soon as the chick hatches, it pushes the other eggs out of the nest. Only the male calls "cuckoo"; the female sounds more like a bubbling laugh. By late summer the cuckoo is already on its way to Africa.