COVER STORY: CUCKOOS
UR European cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) is widely assumed to be a “tpical” cuckoo, and indeed the family name is taken from the male European cuckoo's call. Yet out of 174 species of cuckoos it's only one third - 57 - of the species that are brood parasites. The majority of cuckoos build their own nests, incubate their own eggs and rear their own young. There is also more diversity in appearance and habits among these species than we might assume, and some are known by other names other than cuckoo including coucal, coua, koel and malkoha. These, in fact, are the cuckoos most represented in aviculture.
All cuckoos possess the zygodactyl arrangement of the toes, with two pointing forward and two to the rear, which aids speed and agility on the ground or in trees. All have loose, soft) at just 5in long, to the giant of the family: a fellow Australian species, the channelbilled cuckoo () which measures more than 27in and has a beak like a hornbill. As well as being the largest cuckoo, it is the largest brood parasite, paying its attention to Australian magpies and currawongs.
