''Cuculus'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

cuckoo Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes . The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separ ...

s which has representatives in most of the Old World, although the greatest diversity is in tropical southern and southeastern

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

Taxonomy

The

''Cuculus'' was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

in the tenth edition of his '' Systema Naturae''. The genus name is the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word for "cuckoo". The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

is the

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. I ...

(''Cuculus canorus'').

Species

The genus contains 11 species: *

Black cuckoo The black cuckoo (''Cuculus clamosus'') is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. The species is distributed widely across sub-Saharan Africa. There are two subspecies. This cuckoo has a very wide range and is quite common so it is classifi ...

, ''Cuculus clamosus'' *

Red-chested cuckoo The red-chested cuckoo (''Cuculus solitarius'') is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is a medium-sized bird found in Africa south of the Sahara. In Afrikaans, it is known as "Piet-my-vrou", after its call. Description The red-ches ...

, ''Cuculus solitarius'' *

Lesser cuckoo The lesser cuckoo (''Cuculus poliocephalus'') is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Kenya, North Korea, South Korea, Laos, Malawi, Mya ...

, ''Cuculus poliocephalus'' * Sulawesi cuckoo or Sulawesi hawk-cuckoo, ''Cuculus crassirostris'' *

Indian cuckoo The Indian cuckoo (''Cuculus micropterus'') is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, the Cuculiformes, that is found in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It ranges from India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka east to Indonesia ...

, ''Cuculus micropterus'' * Madagascar cuckoo, ''Cuculus rochii'' * African cuckoo, ''Cuculus gularis'' *

Himalayan cuckoo The Himalayan cuckoo (''Cuculus saturatus'') is a species of cuckoo in the genus ''Cuculus''. It breeds from the Himalayas eastward to southern China and Taiwan. It migrates to southeast Asia and the Greater Sunda Islands for the winter. It was f ...

, ''Cuculus saturatus'' *

Oriental cuckoo The Oriental cuckoo or Horsfields cuckoo (''Cuculus optatus'') is a bird belonging to the genus ''Cuculus'' in the cuckoo family Cuculidae. It was formerly classified as a subspecies of the Himalayan cuckoo (''C. saturatus''), with the name 'Orie ...

, ''Cuculus optatus'' (formerly ''horsfieldi'') (split from ''C. saturatus'') * Sunda cuckoo, ''Cuculus lepidus'' (split from ''C. saturatus'') *

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. I ...

, ''Cuculus canorus'' Some sources also include the pallid cuckoo in this genus, although there is disagreement about appropriate classification. The hawk-cuckoos are now placed in a separate genus, ''

Hierococcyx Hierococcyx or hawk-cuckoos is a genus of birds in the family Cuculidae. The resemblance to hawks gives this group the generic name of hawk-cuckoos. It is sometimes included in the genus Cuculus. Species * Moustached hawk-cuckoo (''Hierococcyx ...

'', while the pallid cuckoo belongs in ''

Cacomantis ''Cacomantis'' is a genus of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. The genus name is derived from the Greek ''kakos'' meaning evil or ill-boding and ''mantis'' for prophet and is derived from their association with "rains" being supposed to be predicte ...

''. These

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s are of variable size with slender bodies, long tails and strong legs. Most occur in open forests, but some prefer more open country. Several species are migratory. These are vocal species, with persistent and loud calls. They feed on large

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

s, with hairy caterpillars, which are distasteful to many birds, being a speciality. One or two species will also take some fruit. ''Cuculus'' cuckoos are brood parasites, that is, they lay a single egg in the nests of various

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

hosts. The best-known example is the European

. The female cuckoo in each case replaces one of the host's eggs with one of her own. The cuckoo egg hatches earlier than the host's, and the chick grows faster; in most cases the cuckoo chick evicts the eggs or young of the host species. ''Cuculus'' species lay coloured eggs to match those of their

hosts. Female cuckoos specialise in a particular host species (generally the species that raised them) and lay eggs that closely resemble the eggs of that host. A species may consist of several gentes, with each gens specialising in a particular host. There is some evidence that the gentes are genetically different from one another though other authorities state that as female cuckoos mate with males of any gens, genes flow between gentes.

Taxonomy

Species

References

Further reading