The best time to hear a cuckoo is during most evenings between mid-April and June. It is summer migrant from Africa the Cuckoo is a brood Parasite (lays eggs in other birds nests). The cuckoo s favoured foster parent species include pipits, warblers, dunnocks and robins. The cuckoo is now a protected bird but populations continue to decrease due to loss of habitat and the use of insecticides. The male cuckoo is famous for its distinctive koo-kooO call. Females have a bubbly chuckle sound different from the males. Juvenile cuckoos migrate several weeks later than their real parents, and they manage to find their way to the regular wintering areas despite never having made the journey before. Cuckoos feed on the ground, but are clumsy walkers. They can often be seen perched on telegraph lines. The cuckoo has long been associated with fate for humans. Numerous beliefs exist, including: it is good luck to have money in your pocket when you hear a cuckoo; whatever you are doing when you hear a cuckoo, you should repeat throughout the year as the call was a sign that the particular activity will be beneficial; for single people, the number of calls or notes would signify how many years they would remain unmarried; and in Sweden, the direction of the call signifies either good luck (west), death (south), consolation (east), or sorrow (north).
