The Curious Life of the Cuckoo Bird

The Curious Life of the Cuckoo is a beautifully illustrated guide to one of England’s most mysterious birds, written by one of our greatest nature writers. Cuckoos are rarely seen, and often mistaken for hawks. And females can disguise her eggs, as those of other birds.

Woodland birds rarely visit gardens. Learn how to create safe havens for garden birds, and how to stop birds flying into windows.

But we’ve all heard its wonderful two-note cuckoo call that heralds the beginning of spring (this sound is from males, females instead make a ‘bubbling sound like water gurgling from the bath, when you pull the plug!)

Cuckoos live in Africa most of the year, and only fly to England when it’s time to start singing! In Africa, there is a cuckoo that looks the same (though he is orange and black). He is called the pooh pooh bird!

Cuckoos are now on the Red endangered list, due to lack of habitats. The best way to help is to preserve our native woodlands.

A walk through the woods is made even more special, if catching glimpse of a woodland bird. And even if we don’t see them, they are having a fabulous time amid the trees! Woodland birds rely on mature trees and dead wood, reasons it’s important to save our forests.

Even ‘dead trees’ are not really dead, as rotten bark provides good hunting ground for food (and a place for nests). And when birds abandon them after rearing chicks, the tree holes are often used by bats, owls and bees.

People once wrote to The Times to proclaim news of the first cuckoo, and farm workers would have the day off, and retire to the woods with a keg of beer. It was not so long ago that the birds sang the seasons into being, the landscape into life.

About the Author

John Lewis-Stempel has been called ‘Britain’s finest living nature writer’ by The Times. He writes widely on different species, and is the only person to have twice won the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing.