Great spotted cuckoo

    Clamator glandarius

Castilian: Críalo europeo

Catalan: Cucut reial

Gallego: Cuco real

Euskera: Kuku mottoduna

CLASIFICACIÓN:

Orden: Cuculiformes

Family: Cuculidae

Migratory status: Summer resident/Permanent resident

CONSERVATION STATUS:

On the National List of Threatened Species, it appears in the “Of Special Interest” category. In the 2004 edition of the Red Book of Spanish Birds (Libro Rojo de las Aves de España) it is listed as “Not Evaluated”.

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THREATS

Although it is disappearing in other countries, it does not seem to have any problems in Spain, although the population may vary from one season to the next.

Length / size: 35-39 cm / 54-60 cm

Identification: Medium-sized bird with a very long tail. The adult's plumage is greyish on its back, dotted with white spots; its belly is also white; its throat is yellowish; and its head has a pointed grey hood that ends in a slightly erectile crest, as well as a red eye-ring. The juvenile's back is brown with white spots, its breast and neck are yellowish, its flight feathers are reddish, its pointed hood is black and its eye-ring is more defined.

Song: Quite noisy, it makes a clattering "kee-kee-kree-kryee-kryee" sound, and a repetitive caw that resembles a crow, "arr arr".

Diet: It feeds on caterpillars and moths, even those that are poisonous or that have stinging hairs, which it rubs against the ground or tree bark in order to remove them and minimise their effects; it complements its diet with ants, grasshoppers, mollusks, and the occasional small vertebrate.

Reproduction: This species practises nest parasitism, which means it lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, which are usually magpies. The other birds then incubate the eggs and care for the chicks, which means that this species avoids the energy cost that raising a brood represents. The cuckoo adapts its breeding cycle to that of the magpie so that they both lay their eggs at the same time, and the female is capable of using up to 25 nests when a physiological mechanism occurs that causes her to produce an elevated number of eggs, which imitate to perfection those of the magpie. She lays the eggs when the adults are absent, and in order to do this, the male cuckoo distracts the magpie pair, and in this moment the female takes advantage and lays her eggs, but not before damaging or throwing out part of the other bird's clutch. The cuckoo chicks finish off the magpie chicks by competing with them for food or suffocating them, given that they are better developed and more robust. The cuckoos can also act as a parasite toward other corvids, such as crows, jays or sand martins.

HABITAT

It occupies areas where the species on which it acts as a parasite are abundant, specifically the magpie. For this reason it is located in open or semi-wooded areas, with farmland, grasslands and small woods of different species. It usually breeds from sea level up to an elevation of 1,300 metres.

DISTRIBUTION

In Spain: It is distributed throughout most of the peninsula, although it is rare in the northern region and in Galicia.

In Castile and León: It breeds in all the provinces, but unevenly.

Movements and migrations: The Mediterranean and South African populations behave as migrants, and they spend the winter in tropical Africa. The populations in the northern hemisphere begin postnuptial migration in June and return to their breeding areas throughout the month of February.

POPULATION

In Spain: There is an estimated population of 55000-64000 breeding pairs.

In Castile and León: There is an estimated population of 600-1000 breeding pairs.