Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes (/kjuːˈkjuːlɪfɔːrmiːz/
The … See more

Cuckoos are medium-sized birds that range in size from the little bronze cuckoo, at 17 g (0.6 oz) and 15 cm (6 in), to moderately large birds, ranging from 60–80 cm (24–31 in) in length, such as the giant coua of Madagascar, … See more

The cuckoos have a cosmopolitan distribution, ranging across all the world's continents except Antarctica. They are absent from the southwest of South America, the far north and northwest of North Amer… See more

The cuckoos are, for the most part, solitary birds that seldom occur in pairs or groups. The biggest exception to this are the anis of the Americas, which have evolved cooperative breeding and other social behaviours… See more

The family Cuculidae was introduced by English zoologist William Elford Leach in a guide to the contents of the British Museum published in 1819.
Very little fossil record of cuckoos has been found, and … See more

For the living members of each genus, see the article List of cuckoo species.
The family Cuculidae contains 150 species which are divided into 33 genera. These numbers include two species that have become ext… See more

In Greek mythology, the god Zeus transformed himself into a cuckoo so that he could seduce the goddess Hera, to whom the bird was sacred. In England, William Shakespeare alludes to the common cu… See more