Is the cuckoo a protected animal? The answer is here
The cuckoo is a bird of the genus Cuculus in the family Cuculidae. Most live in forests in tropical and temperate regions. It is similar in size to a pigeon but more slender, with a dark gray upper body and an abdomen covered in horizontal bands. It flies swiftly and silently. Around the time of Grain in Ear, its loud and somewhat mournful call can be heard almost day and night. Let's take a look below at whether the cuckoo is a protected animal!
Is the cuckoo a protected animal?
The cuckoo is fairly common and is not considered a protected animal. The common cuckoo is about 16 cm long, with most or part of its feathers a bright vivid green. Large ground-dwelling cuckoos can reach 90 cm in length. Most ground-dwelling cuckoos are earth-gray or brown, and some have red or white markings on their bodies. Around the time of Grain in Ear, the four-note cuckoo's loud and somewhat mournful call can be heard almost day and night. Its call is characterized by four notes in one burst——"Quick, cut the wheat! Quick, cut the wheat!", "Quick, sow the grain! Quick, sow the grain!". The cuckoo's call is "cuckoo", "cuckoo".
What food does the cuckoo eat?
Most cuckoos are omnivorous and can help humans eliminate pests. Beetles, cabbage maggots, pine loopers, click beetles and others are all food for the cuckoo, and it especially likes to eat the pine tree's great enemy——the pine caterpillar. The pine caterpillar is a pest that many birds do not like to eat, yet the cuckoo happens to enjoy its flavor. A single cuckoo can prey on more than 100 caterpillars per hour. In addition, the cuckoo also eats other agricultural and forestry pests, so people also call it the "forest guardian".
Common species of cuckoo
1. Rufous-bellied cuckoo: The rufous-bellied cuckoo is a bird of the genus Cuculus in the family Cuculidae. The top of the head, hind neck, sides of the head, back and the surface of both wings are slate gray. The iris is orange to vermilion, the eye ring is yellow, the upper bill is black at the tip, green at the base and lower bill, and the feet are bright yellow. It is distributed in China's southern neighboring countries and as far as the Malay Archipelago, north to the former Soviet Union, east to Japan, and in eastern and southern parts of mainland China, and is mostly seen in evergreen forests or dense mountain shrubland. It is alert and timid by nature, often hiding among the branches and leaves of tall trees to call.
2. Four-note cuckoo: The four-note cuckoo often hides among the trees and is usually not easy to see. Its call is especially loud, four notes in one burst, sounding like "quick, quick, sow grain". It calls once every 2 to 3 seconds, sometimes all night without stopping. It is omnivorous, pecking at pine caterpillars, scarab beetles and other insects, and also eating plant seeds. It does not build a nest, instead laying its eggs in the nests of reed warblers, black drongos and others, and the eggs resemble the host's eggs in appearance. It is found in China's eastern coastal areas, from the Northeast all the way to Hainan Province, and abroad it is widely distributed in Southeast Asia.
3. Yellow-billed cuckoo: The adult yellow-billed cuckoo is 26 to 30 cm long and weighs 55 to 56 grams. It has a long tail, brown on top and alternating black and white underneath, with a yellow-bordered black arc from the lower jaw to the beak. It mainly feeds on insects, especially preferring Lepidoptera larvae such as pine caterpillars, tree butterfly larvae and moths, and sometimes also eats plant seeds and small amounts of plant-based food.
4. Eight-note cuckoo: The eight-note cuckoo is 21 to 25 cm long, with a laterally flattened and sharply pointed bill. The male bird has a gray head, neck and upper breast, a dark gray back to tail, and white tips on the tail. Below the breast it is pale brownish-chestnut, and neither the upper nor lower body has horizontal bands. Its call is eight notes in one burst. The female bird is overall gray-black alternating with chestnut. It prefers open woodland, secondary forest and farming areas, including towns and villages. It is often mobbed by small flocks of birds, and its call is familiar to the ear, yet the bird itself is hard to see.