The cuckoo has not gone away and, indeed, this year in Ireland, appears to be making its presence known far and wide.
The cuckoo has a blue-grey head and white underneath with black bars. The song period is late April to late June.Widespread in Ireland, favouring open areas which hold their main Irish host species – Meadow Pipit. Good areas to see Cuckoo are the Burren and Connemara, which hold the highest density of breeding pairs. Has a remarkable breeding biology unlike any other Irish breeding species.Summer migrant, Wintering in Africa. Next year, never fear, they'll come calling again.
Occurs throughout Ireland, though nowhere especially common. Occurs throughout Ireland, though nowhere especially common. I hope they have found what they were looking for, although many songbird lovers might not approve.Time is of the essence for these birds to achieve what nature has programmed for them in the 12 weeks or so of their visitation.For the first time, I saw a bird in flight, singing on the wing. Cuckoo chicks fledge from the host nest at around three weeks of age and are then fed for two more weeks before they become independent. Good areas to see Cuckoo are the Burren and Connemara, which hold the … A long goodbye - and may it stretch, and we are hopeful it will. In flight, can be mistaken for a bird of prey such as Sparrowhawk, but has rapid wingbeats below the horizontal plane - ie. It's a vicious circle as fewer robins, pipits, dunnocks, etc in the hedgerows can mean a sudden switch of laying plans as eggs are genetically programmed to resemble the host's patterns.The female cuckoo is a fast mover: having poked out an egg from a nest, she lays a replacement in 10 seconds, repeating the operation up to 15 times a day, if she can find suitable nests.These birds are breeding machines, in having mated and laid, they rapidly depart back to Africa leaving giant single youngsters rapidly growing in nests from where they have pitched out eggs and young, and almost swallowing their poor foster parents before they too head off in a behaviour pattern demonstrating innate navigational instincts. Adult cuckoos are among the earliest of our summer visitors to leave. They have no need to help rear their young, so they are free to go. the wings are not raised above the body. Widespread summer visitor to Ireland from April to August.Despite its obvious song, relatively infrequently seen. Summer migrant, Wintering in Africa. Cuckoos occur right across Northern Ireland, but are more common in the west; They prefer rough, marginal land such as hillsides, heathland, scrub or marshes; The cuckoo is a summer visitor, arriving in April and departing by the end of September The underparts are white with black barring. It is yet another of nature's continuing miracles. "The bird's distinctive echoing notes influenced Beethoven who used the 'call' at the end of the Second Movement of his Pastoral Symphony.
Most leave the UK during June. He, who was in a happy frame of mind after a successful lambing season, had a rhyme from his childhood: "In April, I open my bill/In May, I sing all day (or, night and day)/In June, I change my tune/In July, I fly away.
Can you guess how the cuckoo got its name? Males have been seeking mates, a difficult task with fewer birds as the little hosts in whose nests their eggs are deposited are also in decline.
When you see a cuckoo in Ireland, people say that it is a sign that spring has arrived as this is when it leaves Africa. The female has a distinctive bubbling “pupupupu”.
The so-called grey-morph resembles the adult male plumage, but has throat and breast barred black and white with yellowish wash. The pitch notes are D and B or D and B-flat treble stave.For several weeks past I have had messages from west Cork to Mayo, and along the eastern seaboard also, of cuckoos calling. A long goodbye - and may it stretch, and we are hopeful it will.This being the final flourish of May, in between showers of hailstones and a touch of sleet in the North Leitrim hills, I heard my first seasonal 'singing' (competing with a cock pheasant for attention across a valley) of this sparrowhawk-like bird, the singing and the song being the descriptive words used by one farmer. The rufous-morph has the grey replaced by rufous, with strong black barring on the wings, back and tail. They will never see their real parents; indeed, most adult cuckoos will already have left the UK by late June. Adult females can appear in one of two forms. Adult male Cuckoos are a uniform grey on the head, neck, back, wings and tail. Juvenile Cuckoos resemble the female rufous-morph, but are darker brown above.The song is probably one of the most recognisable and well-known of all Irish bird species. MICHAEL McCarthy, man of a fine Munster name, is an English journalist and much respected writer on nature topics and the environment.His most recent work, generously reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement, is called The Moth Snowstorm and is a chronicle of unfolding disasters suggesting an ominous new geological metaphor called the 'Anthropocene Epoch' - which is right now - when one species (us) has evolved the power to change and destroy the whole blessed biosphere.His previous book, Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo, waved a fond farewell to that avian parasite and other much more loved birds in today's never-ending saga of bird species' survival against all the odds.But 'Cucu' is still singing loudly, competing with the stag in the forest and bullock in the paddock and once again heralding that 'somer is a-comen in, lude singe cucu'.The cuckoo has not gone away and, indeed, this year in Ireland, appears to be making its presence known far and wide. Its wings are spotted and it has two yellow feet. The male gives a distinctive “wuck-oo”, which is occasionally doubled “wuck-uck-ooo”.