Paging Maestro: Guess what has nested in a neighboring tree?

[Eurobabe]

A CUCKOO!! (this is not my picture, but from the net, I have to find out where it lives first!)



Hell, for weeks now I thought someone's clock was a little off. Seriously.

Today I was visiting the neighbor and I said who's clock is that? She laughed hysterically and said, "Das ist ein Vögel!" To my amazement, we sat quietly and sure enough, it kept on cuckooing.

Evidently they are very shy, I have yet to see one, I can only here is in a tree across the street. When the females are ready to lay eggs (man these birds are lazy!) she finds a nest of another bird, lays her eggs and then takes over the place. Eventually the original owner's chicks are pushed out of the nest to make room for the growing cuckoo chicks.

Are there cuckoos in the US? I never heard or saw one there. This has me amazed, it really sounds like a clock! :rofl:

[Maestro]

1. Very cool!!!!!

Yes we have cuckoos in the US. There are yellow billed cuckoos and in fact the greater roadrunner is actually a cuckoo as well. They are very shy birds. I only have one picture of a cuckoo, a yellow billed cuckoo, from the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas. Other cuckoos are the black billed cuckoo and the groove billed anis.

Here is my only pic of one.

[Eurobabe]

2. Ours are a bit smaller and grayish

I swear, up until last month, I've never heard a cuckoo, other than the clock on my grandmother's wall! :rofl:

My backyard is like a jungle, because we live very close to many large nature-preserves, the songbird population is extremely healthy. I can't tell you how nice it is to hear the birds singing all day long, and then crickets at night. I really respect this country immensely because they care so much for wildlife and the environment.

My husband wanted to spray Round-Up on some weeds out front and I said HELL NO! We are too close to the ponds, etc. and that stuff is pure poison. I don't even know if they sell it over here? :shrug:

BTW, I don't know if you saw in the Environment Forum, louvain posted about Germany banning some chemical made by Bayer (clothianidin) because they have implicated it in CCD (colony collapse disorder)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=138979&mesg_id=139073

[Eurobabe]

3. I swear my English is going down

the toilet. First post, I can "hear it" in the neighbor's tree.

[MissHoneychurch]

4. So you know the German word for cuckoo??

:rofl:

[Eurobabe]

5. Naturlich, kuckuk!

:hi:

[MissHoneychurch]

7. Der die das?

:P

:hi:

[Eurobabe]

9. der. Thanks to LEO online

:rofl:

[MissHoneychurch]

10. I KNEW I should have said

without the Internet :rofl:

[jhain]

6. Sounds like my sister-in-law

the leaving offspring for someone else part And, the cuckoo bit if I let myself dwell on it...

[Eurobabe]

8. LOL, hey, how's YOUR chickies?

Pics? :hi:

[jhain]

11. they grow too fast. sniff, sniff...

[Eurobabe]

12. Oh, the ugly teenage phase...

:rofl: :rofl:

You were right, they are cute as chicks, beautiful as grown ups but only a mother could love them at present. :hi: