Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus)

The call of the cuckoo is quite unmistakable: cuckoo. It gives away its own name. Just like the chiffchaff, which sometimes, to the annoyance of some, won’t stop chiffchaffing… even here on campus. A cuckoo rarely shows itself, but it can certainly be heard. Liesje Mommer, a researcher specialising in underground interactions between plants and fungi, heard the cuckoo on Sunday 4 May while out running.

Cuckoos are best known for the place they lay their eggs: in the nest of another bird. That behaviour, incidentally, can also be found among certain mammals and insects. Why fetch your own food every time when a dunnock or reed warbler can do it for you? A female cuckoo even specialises in a particular bird species or family. Her eggs closely resemble those of the host bird.

The cuckoo is having a hard time. In just a few decades, their numbers have halved. But in early May, one could be heard on campus. Just like in the old Dutch song:‘De uil zat in de olmen. Bij 't vallen van de nacht. En achter gindse heuvels.
Daar riep de koekoek zacht: Koekoek koekoek koekoek, koekoek, koekoek’.