Common cuckoo: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the common cuckoo lives – recorded in 68 countries, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Cuculus canorus
Group	Cuckoos, turacos & other birds
Status	Least concern (Wikidata, IUCN category label)
Found in	68 countries
Continents	Africa, Asia, Europe, North America
Mass	3.22 g (birth weight); 117 g (male organism, adult weight); 106 g (female organism, adult weight)
Diet (main food)	insect, chick, caterpillar, egg as food
Class	Bird
Order	Cuculiformes
Family	Cuculidae

Where does the common cuckoo live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the common cuckoo in 68 countries and territories across Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. Wikidata gives its range as: Gabon, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria.

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

How big is a common cuckoo?

Wikidata records the following for the common cuckoo: mass 3.22 g (birth weight); 117 g (male organism, adult weight); 106 g (female organism, adult weight).

What does a common cuckoo eat?

Wikidata lists the main food source of the common cuckoo as: insect, chick, caterpillar, egg as food.

Is the common cuckoo endangered?

The common cuckoo’s conservation status recorded in Wikidata is “Least concern” (an IUCN Red List category label). Source: Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the common cuckoo?

The common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) is a bird in the order Cuculiformes and the family Cuculidae, genus Cuculus. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the common cuckoo

The cuckoo, common cuckoo, European cuckoo or Eurasian cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, Cuculiformes, which includes the roadrunners, the anis and the coucals.

This species is a widespread summer migrant to Europe and Asia, and winters in Africa. It is a brood parasite, which means it lays eggs in the nests of other bird species, particularly of dunnocks, meadow pipits, and reed warblers. Although its eggs are larger than those of its hosts, the eggs in each type of host nest resemble the host's eggs. The adult too is a mimic, in its case of the sparrowhawk; since that species is a predator, the mimicry gives the female time to lay her eggs without being attacked.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Common cuckoo (revision 1380574688), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q18845 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).