Every year at the turn of spring and summer, we can often hear the cry of "cuckoo~cuckoo" in the fields. Yes, it is what we commonly call cuckoo. At a certain time, people in most areas of our country can hear the cuckoo's call. However, you may not have noticed that after the wheat harvest, we rarely hear their call. So, where have they gone at this time? Why do they appear at specific times? Let’s take a brief look at this bird. Cuckoo

The cuckoo is a relatively mysterious bird, and the reason why it is mysterious is that in most cases, we only hear the sound of this bird but not see it, even in If it doesn't make a cry, many friends won't recognize it even if they see it. So, let’s first identify the cuckoo.

The scientific name of the cuckoo is the great cuckoo, which belongs to the great cuckoo species of the genus Rhododendron in the family Rhododendron. There are four different subspecies under the great cuckoo species. They are: the great cuckoo Xinjiang subspecies, the great cuckoo Rhododendron subspecies East China, Rhododendron grandis nominative subspecies and Rhododendron grandis Huaxia species. Judging from the names of these four subspecies, it seems that they are all species unique to my country. In fact, this is not the case. Most of the four subspecies of the giant rhododendron are distributed in Europe and Asia. The named subspecies of the giant rhododendron even appears in Africa. On the mainland.

Although there are multiple subspecies of cuckoos, the differences between these subspecies are not big and are only classified according to their activity areas and flight routes. Overall, the cuckoo is about the same size as our common pigeons, with an average body length of about 30 cm and a wingspan of about 40 cm. From the appearance, the body color of the cuckoo is mainly gray-brown, and the feathers on the abdomen are mainly gray-white. It is covered with brown horizontal stripes that continue to the tail, and there are white horizontal stripes on the wings. The cuckoo's head is relatively round and its beak is relatively short and slender.

Habits of the cuckoo

Cuckoos, like most other birds, feed on insects, so they usually appear on tall trees in mountains and plains. . So if we hear the cuckoo’s call in the fields, we will definitely be able to see them in the tall trees nearby.

It is worth mentioning that the cuckoo’s call is very rhythmic. The feeling is basically cuckoo~cuckoo, two sounds are one beat, and they are called continuously. Although on the surface, cuckoos are about the same size as pigeons and feed mainly on insects. But in fact, the cuckoo is a very cunning bird. Regarding the cunning of the cuckoo, I believe everyone has heard the idiom "the dove occupies the magpie's nest", and the cuckoo can express this idiom vividly. During the breeding season, other birds are busy building nests, but the cuckoo is very leisurely looking for bugs to eat. After other birds have built their nests and laid their eggs, it will take action.

Since many birds have the habit of male and female taking turns incubating eggs, there is no chance that this bird's nest will be exploited. Therefore, some birds whose offspring are hatched by a female alone have become the first choice of cuckoos, such as magpies, shrikes and other birds whose offspring are hatched by female birds. Since the female bird needs to go out to hunt when she is alone to incubate her offspring, the cuckoo will take advantage of this gap to sneak into the nest and lay the eggs.

The "Executioner" Cuckoo

After the cuckoo lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, it will not stay there, not to mention fierce birds like the shrike. He will not give up the nest obediently, so in order to avoid conflicts, the cuckoo has two plans:

Plan 1: The civet cat exchanges for the prince. After laying their own eggs, many cuckoos will take the eggs of other birds in the nest out of the nest with their beaks, and then eat them directly or throw them to the ground. In this way, one's own eggs become the eggs of other birds.

Option two: ignore it. Some cuckoos lay their eggs and fly away. This captures the characteristic that many birds have no ability to distinguish eggs. When the mother bird returns, she will hatch the cuckoo eggs together. However, the incubation period of passerine members such as magpies and shrike is mostly about 15-18 days, while the incubation period of cuckoos is only about 10 days.

At this time, the cuckoo that hatched earlier than the original bird will push the other unhatched eggs out of the nest.

Therefore, during the breeding season, both the adult cuckoo and the newly hatched baby bird are the "executioners", and the mother bird who has been secretly occupied the nest stupidly helps the "enemy" to raise her offspring. Why are cuckoos rarely heard singing after the wheat harvest?

As we said at the beginning, we often hear the cuckoo singing at the turn of spring and summer, but after the wheat harvest is over, we can hardly hear the cuckoo singing at all. Why is this? In fact, the reason is very simple, related to the breeding habits of cuckoos.

The cuckoo is a summer migratory bird, and summer migratory birds refer to birds that breed in fixed areas in spring and summer, and then fly to warmer areas to overwinter after autumn and winter. Among them, we are the most common The most popular summer migratory bird is the barn swallow. As a summer migratory bird, the cuckoo will come to our country one after another from April to May every year, because this period is the breeding season of the cuckoo. At the same time, it is the breeding season for many passerine members in our country, so during this time, you can find birds that can raise offspring for you.

Therefore, we mostly hear the cuckoo singing from April to June every year.

However, the cuckoo’s call usually lasts until mid-June, and then the call is rarely heard. Did they lay their eggs and then fly away?

The answer is no. In our country, cuckoos spend about 4-5 months here from April to May every year, and they do not migrate to warmer areas until September. June is the wheat harvest season every year, so why doesn’t the cuckoo stop singing during the nearly three months from June to September?

The reason lies in the purpose of the cuckoo’s call. The reason why cuckoos make "cuckoo cuckoo" calls is actually to attract the opposite sex to mate. Since the cuckoo is a solitary bird, and May-June every year is the cuckoo's mating period, during this period, the cuckoo can only find its mate through this call. When mating is complete, the cuckoo is like pressing the mute button and rarely makes any more calls. Most cuckoos complete mating in mid-June, which is exactly the time to complete the wheat harvest. This is why after the wheat harvest, we rarely hear the cuckoo singing. It’s not because it flies away, but because it doesn’t need to sing. For the remaining 3 months or so, they will always be there quietly. Eating insects in the fields. Summary

The cuckoo is a summer migratory bird, so they come to my country to breed every year from April to May. Due to the habit of living alone, it must attract the opposite sex by singing. Therefore, when the breeding is completed After that, they will stop barking, and this short time coincides with the end of the wheat harvest. So, on the surface, it means that the wheat harvest is over and the cuckoo is gone. In fact, this is not the case. After mating, the cuckoos only start to migrate in September every year. Therefore, during this period, the cuckoos have been wandering in the fields, but they stopped singing after breeding.