Jaycuckoo

Jaycuckoo

With a body length of up to 39 cm, the jay cuckoo is slightly larger than our native cuckoo. Its plumage is brown with white speckles on the upper side and white on the underside. The neck is pale yellow and its head is grey. It also has a small feather cap on its head. Compared to our cuckoo, the jay cuckoo's tail is slightly thinner and longer and its wings are slightly wider and blunter.

Nutrition

Its diet consists mainly of insects and lizards. Its speciality is the hardened caterpillars of butterflies and moths, which are inedible for many other animals. It is able to precisely remove these hairs before eating them.

Distribution

The preferred habitat of the jay cuckoo consists of open woodland, savannah, scrub and grasslands at an altitude of between 500 m and 2000 m. It is found in large parts of Africa and southern Europe. It is found in large parts of Africa and southern Europe.

The breeding season of the jay cuckoo is between March and July, depending on the area of origin. Just like our native cuckoo, it is a brood parasite. This means that it does not breed itself, but lays its eggs in the nests of other birds. Its most important hosts are members of the corvid family (Corvidae). These include various species of crows and magpies. The female can lay between 12 and 25 eggs in foreign nests in one season. Several eggs can also be laid in a host nest. Sometimes the female destroys some of the host's eggs when laying them so that they do not hatch. The eggs of the jay cuckoo are coloured pale green, speckled grey to brown and therefore look very similar to the host eggs. The young of the jay cuckoo take around 15 days to hatch, which is significantly shorter than the young of the host. This means that the young jay cuckoos have a developmental advantage over the other young. In contrast to our native cuckoo, the young jay cuckoo does not throw the other eggs out of the nest. However, it competes with the others for the food on offer and as it is larger and stronger, it is favoured by the parents. Therefore, it often happens that some of the host's young birds starve to death. The jay cuckoo chicks fledge after about 25 days, but are fed by the host parents for another 25-60 days until they finally leave the nest.

The population of the jay cuckoo is not endangered due to its extremely large distribution area. It also copes well with disturbance caused by humans. The only threat is hunting by humans.