Migratory birds: cuckoo, cuckoo - is it already calling from the forest?

The Hesse Nature Conservation Union (NABU) calls for people to keep their ears open for a herald of spring, which is easily recognizable by its unmistakable call.

Anyone who hears the sound of the cuckoo can report it to NABU.

Wolfram Ahlers

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for central Hesse and the Wetterau.

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Experts hope the action will provide more clues as to how the cuckoo is able to adapt to climate change.

Due to warming, many migratory birds return to Hesse earlier and earlier in the year.

In some areas the first white storks are already breeding.

With regard to the cuckoo, which winters as a long-distance flier in Africa, ornithologists assume that it has not yet adapted its arrival time to climatic changes, as other species seem to have done.

The first cuckoos have already been spotted in this country, but most only arrive in April.

Cuckoo depends on hosts

However, many of the cuckoo's host birds, such as robins, black redstarts, wrens, wagtails and reed warblers, are beginning to breed earlier and earlier.

When the cuckoo arrives here in large numbers, the first eggs have often already been laid.

According to ornithologists, this makes it increasingly difficult for this species to successfully plant their eggs on future foster parents.

The cuckoo is dependent on hosts who are at the very beginning of the brood, so that the young cuckoo is the first to hatch and can push the eggs of the young birds of its foster parents over the edge of the nest.

So in order to reproduce successfully, the cuckoo must coordinate precisely with the breeding activities of its host birds.

This sensitive structure could be disrupted by climate change.

However, it is gratifying that the cuckoo is still widespread throughout Hesse, reports NABU.

Reports on cuckoo calls can be made on the website

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