Cuckoos | Cuculiformes

Koekoeksvogels | Cucos

Cuckoos have a slender body, a long, graduated tail and zygodactyl feet, with two toes pointing forward and two back, giving a strong grip for climbing and grasping. The slightly curved bill is used to take insects, caterpillars and small vertebrates; some species in this region travel mainly on foot rather than by flying. Unlike many cuckoos elsewhere in the world, most North American species build their own nest and incubate their own eggs rather than relying on a host. The chicks hatch naked and helpless and are raised in the nest by both parents.

Families in this order

Cuckoos | Cuculidae7 speciesCaterpillars bearing irritating, barbed hairs are first squeezed against a branch to strip off the skin before being swallowed; any hairs eaten anyway build up in the stomach lining and are periodically coughed up as a pellet. The ground-running member of the family catches lizards and snakes on foot and kills them by repeatedly slamming the prey against the ground or a rock; on cold mornings it warms up by raising its back feathers and exposing the black skin beneath to the sun. Another species breeds not as a pair but in groups of several adults sharing one nest, where eggs from different females are laid on top of one another. The family's eggs are plain blue-green, and the young feather over unusually fast for nestlings.