Cuculus canorus

Interesting facts: Who doesn’t know the cuckoo - famous in numerous stories and songs. It is known for its eponymous call and its parasitic breeding behaviour. The female lays individual eggs in the nests of other specific song birds. If the foster parent does not notice the deception, the newly hatched cuckoo throws the other eggs or young birds out of the nest. Adult cuckoos are loners. The shy bird feeds on insects, earwigs, grasshoppers and even hairy caterpillars.

Characteristics: Males with blue-grey, unmarked upperside and breast, females in two colour variations: one like the males, but with touches of rust-brown, horizontal stripes, the other with red-brown horizontal upper wings; both sexes with distinctive horizontal stripes on the abdomen (like sparrow hawk); long, pointed wings; long tail; yellow eye, lid ring and base of the beak

Body length: Longer than 30 cm (longer than a blackbird)