The cuculids (Cuculidae) are a family of birds belonging to the order Cuculiformes, which includes cuckoos, critters, koeles, malcohas, squigs and roadrunners., among other.
Cuckoos are generally medium-sized and slender birds. Most species live in trees, although a considerable minority live on the ground. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution; most species are tropical. Some species are migratory. Cuckoos feed on insects, insect larvae and a variety of other animals, as well as fruits. Some species are laying parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other species and giving rise to the metaphor cuckoo egg, but most species raise their own young.
Cuckoos have played a role in human culture for thousands of years, appearing in Greek mythology as sacred to the goddess Hera. In Europe, the cuckoo is associated with spring and cuckoldry, for example in Shakespeare's play Love's Labour's Lost. In India, cuckoos are sacred to Kamadeva, the god of desire and longing, while in Japan, the cuckoo symbolizes unrequited love.
Description
The malkoha pechicastaño is typical of the Phaenicophaeinae for having the skin brightly colored around the eye.
Cuckoos are medium-sized birds ranging from the lesser cuckoo, at 17 g and 15 cm (6 in), to moderately large birds, ranging from 60-80 cm (23.6-31.5 in).) in length, such as the Madagascar giant cuckoo, the Indochinese ground cuckoo, the toucan cuckoo and several large Indo-Pacific cuckoos such as the Halmahera goliath cucal, the pheasant cucal, the milo cucal, the menebiki cucal, the purplish cucal and forms largest of the pheasant cucal. The toucan cuckoo, at 630 g and 63 cm is the largest parasitic cuckoo. Generally there is little sexual dimorphism in size, but when it exists, the male or female may be the largest. One of the most important distinguishing features of the family are the feet, which are zygodactyls, meaning that the two inner toes point forward and the two outer toes point backward. There are two basic body shapes, arboreal species (such as the common cuckoo) which are slender and have short tarsi, and terrestrial species (such as roadrunners) which are heavier and have long tarsi. Almost all species have long tails that are used for steering in terrestrial species and as a rudder during flight in arboreal species. The shape of the wings also varies depending on the lifestyle, since the most migratory species such as the black-billed cuckoo have long, narrow wings capable of strong direct flight, and the more terrestrial and sedentary cuckoos such as the Centropus and the malkohas have shorter and rounded wings and a more elaborate gliding flight.
The subfamily Cuculinae are the parasitic cuckoos of the Old World. They tend to conform to the classical form, with (usually) long tails, short legs, long narrow wings, and an arboreal lifestyle. The largest species, the channel-billed cuckoo, also has the largest beak in the family, similar to that of a hornbill. The subfamily Phaenicophaeinae are the non-parasitic cuckoos of the Old World, and include the couas, malkohas, and ground cuckoos. They are more terrestrial cuckoos, with strong and often long legs and short, rounded wings. The subfamily usually has brighter plumage and brightly colored bare skin around the eye. The Centropus are another Old World terrestrial subfamily of long-tailed, short-legged cuckoos. They are large, heavy birds, the largest being the menbeki cuckoo, the same size as the channel-billed cuckoo. The subfamily Coccyzinae is also arboreal and long-tailed, with several large insular forms. New World ground cuckoos are similar to Asian ground cuckoos in being long-legged and terrestrial, and include the Long-billed Roadrunner, which can reach speeds of 30 km/h when pursuing its prey. The last subfamily is the atypical anises, which include the small, clumsy anise and the larger guira cuckoo. Anises have huge beaks and smooth, shiny feathers.
Some species, such as the Asian Emerald Cutter (Asian Emerald Cutter)Chrysoccyx maculatus) have an iridescent plumage.
Cuckoo feathers are generally soft, and often become waterlogged in heavy rain. Cuckoos often bask in the sun after rain, and anises keep their wings open in the manner of a vulture or cormorant while they dry. There is considerable variation in the plumage displayed by the family. Some species, particularly egg-laying parasites, have cryptic plumage, while others have bright, elaborate plumage. This is particularly true of the Chrysococcyx or shiny cuckoos, which have iridescent plumage. Some cuckoos have a resemblance to falcons of the genus Accipiter with bars on the underside; this apparently alarms potential hosts, allowing the female to access a host nest. The young of some brood parasites are colored to resemble the host's young. For example, common koels that breed in India have black offspring to resemble their crow hosts, while in Australian koels the offspring are brown like their honeyeater hosts. Sexual dimorphism in plumage is rare in cuckoos, being more common in Old World parasitic species.
Cuckoo genera differ in the number of primary wing feathers as follows.
Cuculids basically feed on insects. The majority are arborícolas, but some make land life and therefore have longer legs.
Many old world species are nestoparasitas, putting their eggs in the nests of other birds. The best known examples are the common European cuckoo ( Cuculus canorus ) and the Critalo ( clamor glandarius ). In the case of the common European cuckoo, the pigeon that breaks the egg in the nest of another species methodically eliminates all other occupants.
The non -parasites cucos usually build nests in trees based on herbs and twigs where they deposit two to six eggs, usually bluish and sometimes stained. Both parents incubate and feed the little ones. The aníes and the gargas of tropical America are very gregarious and build communal nests where several females perform the set.
Distribution and Habitat The Cuban lizard cuckoo is a great island of the Caribbean.
Cucos have a cosmopolitan distribution, extending by all continents in the world except Antarctica. They are absent in southwest South America, in the northern end and northwest of North America, and in the driest areas of the Middle East and North Africa (although they appear there as migrant birds). In general, they only appear as vagrants in the Oceanic Islands of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean, but a species is reproduced in several Pacific Islands and another is a winter migrant in much of the Pacific.
Cuculinae is the most widespread subfamily of the Cucos, and is distributed in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and Oceania. Among the Cucos Phaenicophaeinae, the Malkohas and the Asian terrestrial cucos are restricted to the south of Asia, the Couas are endemic to Madagascar and the yellow peak cuckoo is extended throughout Africa. Coucales are distributed from Africa through Tropical Asia to Australia and the Solomon Islands. The three remaining subfamilies have a distribution in the New World, the three are found both in North and South America. Coccyzinae is the northernmost of the three subfamilies, reproducing in Canada, while the anise arrive at Florida and the typical dirt cucos to the southwest of the United States.
For cucos, the appropriate habitat provides a food source (mainly insects and, above all, caterpillars) and a place to raise, while for the set parasites an adequate habitat is needed for the host species. The Cucos are in a wide variety of habitat. Most species are found in forests and jungles, mainly in tropical perennial leaf jungles. Some species inhabit or are even restricted to mangrove forests; Among them are Australia's collillo, some Malkohas, Coucales and the well -called mangrove squad of the New World. In addition to forests, some species of cucos occupy more open environments; This may include even arid areas such as deserts in the case of the big roadrun or pale cuckoo. Temperate migratory species, such as the common cuckoo, inhabit a wide range of habitats to make the most of the potential breeding guests, from the cañaverales (where they parasitize carricteros) to the moors without trees (where they parasitate Pratenses bonds).
migration Eastern Cyril in Singapore.
Most cuckoo species are sedentary, but some undertake regular seasonal migrations and others undertake partial migrations across part of their range.
Species that breed at higher latitudes migrate to warmer climates during the winter due to food availability. The long-tailed koel, which breeds in New Zealand, flies to its wintering grounds in Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia, a feat described as "perhaps the most remarkable overwater migration of any land bird." The yellow-billed cuckoo and black-billed cuckoo breed in North America and fly across the Caribbean Sea, a non-stop flight of 4,000 km. Other long migratory flights are the lesser cuckoo, which flies from Africa to India, and the common European cuckoo, which flies non-stop over the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert on the journey between Europe and central Africa.
Within Africa, ten species carry out regular intracontinental migrations that are described as polarized; That is, they spend the non-reproductive season in the tropical center of the continent and move north and south to reproduce in the savannah and the most arid and open deserts. This is the same situation that occurs in the Neotropics, where none species has this migratory pattern, or in tropical Asia, where only one species has it. 83% of Australian species are partial migrants within Australia or travel to New Guinea and Indonesia after the breeding season.
In some species migration is diurnal, as in the toucan cuckoo, or nocturnal, as in the yellow-billed cuckoo.
Classification
The Cuculidae family includes the following genera:
Subfamily Crotophaginae - ticks and pirinchos
Gender Guira
Gender Crotophaga
Subfamily Neomorphinee - correcaminos, cucos-hormigueros y afines
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