Cuckoo calling
Last year I posted a photo of a Cuckoo with its beak open calling and a friend told me that the RSPB Complete Book of British Birds states that "the male keeps its bill closed when calling". I checked the book and that is indeed what it says, though it was published back in 1988. Well I have watched a lot of Cuckoos and I can say categorically that male Cuckoos do open their bills when calling. In fact they open the bill twice with each syllable. It is opened just a few millimetres for the "cuck", then closed and then opened a smaller amount for the "oo". They open their beak noticeably wider for the first syllable of the stuttering "CUCK-Cuck-oo" and they also open the bill wider for that wonderful wheezy chuckling. If you listen to this recording on Xeno Canto eventually the male gives the trisyllabic Cuck-cuck-oo, and the wheezy chuckling: www.xeno-canto.org/580937 .
I photographed this male in the Peak District last week when there was another male around and a female had given her bubbling call. This male was giving the wheezy chuckle so I managed to capture him with his beak wide open. It's a wonderful call but you can only hear it when the birds are at close range, whereas the cuckoo call can be heard over a mile away. And one final thing; I never knew that adult Cuckoos have orange inside their mouths just like the begging juveniles.
Cuckoo calling
Last year I posted a photo of a Cuckoo with its beak open calling and a friend told me that the RSPB Complete Book of British Birds states that "the male keeps its bill closed when calling". I checked the book and that is indeed what it says, though it was published back in 1988. Well I have watched a lot of Cuckoos and I can say categorically that male Cuckoos do open their bills when calling. In fact they open the bill twice with each syllable. It is opened just a few millimetres for the "cuck", then closed and then opened a smaller amount for the "oo". They open their beak noticeably wider for the first syllable of the stuttering "CUCK-Cuck-oo" and they also open the bill wider for that wonderful wheezy chuckling. If you listen to this recording on Xeno Canto eventually the male gives the trisyllabic Cuck-cuck-oo, and the wheezy chuckling: www.xeno-canto.org/580937 .
I photographed this male in the Peak District last week when there was another male around and a female had given her bubbling call. This male was giving the wheezy chuckle so I managed to capture him with his beak wide open. It's a wonderful call but you can only hear it when the birds are at close range, whereas the cuckoo call can be heard over a mile away. And one final thing; I never knew that adult Cuckoos have orange inside their mouths just like the begging juveniles.