black cuckoos

Don't tell me that you knew that the first cuckoo clocks were made in the Black Forest in the mid-18th century. And don't turn your noses up, either. When did you last see a cuckoo clock? All right then, so your gran has one of those poo-coloured chalets from which a featherless, startled-looking bird emerges on the hour, wide of mouth and eye, garbling a whoop. But then, it can't be easy having a stick up your bottom.

It was, of course, only a matter of time before gran detritus became cool, but who'd have thought it would be the CC? Cuckoo clocks are back, but not as we knew them (though I'm tempted to bid on a vintage Schmeckenbecher model on eBay). These are chic, pared-down cuckoos with tidy habits, John Pawson-like housing, quartz light detectors (to keep the cuckooing down to a dull roar at night) and smart colours.

To understand the rebirth of the cuckoo clock, we must analyse the evolution of the clock over the past 20 years. One word comes to mind: boring. Consider the large Eighties farmhouse pine clock (to match the scrubbed pine table), the faux French station clock � very early Nineties � to complement the faux French country furniture, and the mid-Nineties, greedy bastard banker trio of clocks � if it's 5pm in London, it's midday in New York, an ungodly hour in Tokyo and I've got a big enough kitchen wall to hang three clocks. The apogee of the bad clock movement, though, is the recent, smug minimalist projection clock, which beams the time onto the wall. This is pretty damned clever until an unsuspecting guest stands in front of the projection and the light shows up his or her dandruff. If you own any or all of the aforementioned clocks, then for goodness' sake, take them down immediately.

The new cuckoo is irony embodied. Why? Because nobody needs a clock any more with all the other timekeeping devices that we have about our person � the phone, computer and BlackBerry. The cuckoo clock is both the new tongue-in-cheek work of art and the new fashion statement. "The cuckoo clock represents a popular movement in design, the modernising of an old classic," says Miranda Harrison, group buyer for Conran stores. Harrison's bestseller is a silver cuckoo (￡210). "Buyers like the sense of individuality a cuckoo clock represents; there's a hint of humour and a lot of style about it," she says. "And have you noticed that so many clocks are just plain boring?"

Related Internet Links
The cuckoo clock speech from The Third Man
The cuckoo clock is now so hip that BMW has created a version for the Mini dashboard. On the hour, a small red Mini emerges and circles the clock, complete with vrooming and beeping noises. Technically speaking, this makes it a car clock rather than a cuckoo clock, but I think we all know where BMW is coming from.
The cuckoo clock is backTimes Online
- Oct 13, 2007
- Oct 13, 2007
Don't tell me that you knew that the first cuckoo clocks were made in the Black Forest in the mid-18th century. And don't turn your noses up, either. ...
clipped from Google - 10/2007
Why a poster has caused rioting in cuckoo clock landDaily Mail
- Oct 21, 2007
- Oct 21, 2007
And the symbol of Switzerland's dangerous new division is a black sheep. Just like Britain's Labour Government, Mr Blocher's SVP party is very keen on ...
clipped from Google - 10/2007
Sparrow Big Day on Sunday and Good Birding around Biddeford Pool ...MaineToday.com, USA
- Oct 23, 2007
- Oct 23, 2007
A decent group of shorebirds on Biddeford Pool Beach included 100+ Sanderlings, 6 Semipalmated Plovers, 4 Black-bellied Plovers, 1 Dunlin, ...
clipped from Google - 10/2007
Sons of Italy Hall - 168 Lexington St. - WOBURN, MA. --10 MILES ...Maine Antique Digest, USA
- Oct 24, 2007
- 5 hours ago
... Ornate Carved Walnut 1880 Lenzkirch Regulator Clock, Ornate Late 1800's Weight Driven French Wall Clock w/Hammered Figures, Large Black Forest Cuckoo ...
clipped from Google - 10/2007
More news results ?

Blog posts


Black Cuckoos 4 hours ago
If a good cook could cook cuckoos so fine And a good cook could cook cuckoos all the time How many cuckoos could a good cook cook If a good cook could cook cuckoos? If you cross a cross across a cross Or cross a stick across a stick . ...

sandiego.gov, amzn, brian maienschein, ... 54 minutes ago
black cuckoos; kpbs; breeders cup; maria shriver; de luz fire; fork and knife lyrics brand new; orange county fire map; poway.org; rockies tickets; jesca hoop; usps.com/household; calfire; palomar mountain; del dios; newhall fire ...

... tennessee the cuckoos the cuckoos egg the cuckoos egg by cliff stoll the cuckoos egg cliff notes the cuckoos egg clifford stoll the cuckoos egg review the cuckoos egg summary the cuckoos nest the cuckoos nest ambleside the cuckoos ...



Web results


Cuckoo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The cuckoos are a family, Cuculidae, of near passerine birds. .... Genus Chrysococcyx - bronze cuckoos. Black-eared Cuckoo, Chrysococcyx osculans ...

clipped from Google - 10/2007
All About Birds
Common but secretive, the Black-billed Cuckoo is heard far more often than seen. During the breeding season, this forest dwelling caterpillar-eater often ...

clipped from Google - 10/2007
Cuckoos of the World: A Checklist
Red-winged Crested Cuckoo Clamator coromandus Black and White Cuckoo Clamator jacobinus ... Red-chested Cuckoo Cuculus solitarius Black Cuckoo Cuculus cafer ...

clipped from Google - 10/2007
Black-billed Cuckoo
Juvenile Yellow-billed Cuckoos can be black-billed and can have small tail spots and are best identified by primary pattern. ...
Cuckoo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For other uses, see Cuckoo (disambiguation).
Cuckoos


Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Order: Cuculiformes

Family: Cuculidae
Vigors, 1825

Genera
See text.

The cuckoos are a family, Cuculidae, of near passerine birds. The order Cuculiformes, in addition to the cuckoos, also includes the turacos (family Musophagidae, sometimes treated as a separate order, Musophagiformes). Some zoologists have also included the unique Hoatzin in the Cuculiformes, though it is now usually placed in an order of its own, Opisthocomiformes. The taxonomy of this enigmatic species, however, remains in some dispute.

The cuckoo family, in addition to those species named as such, also includes the roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separated as distinct families, the Centropodidae and Crotophagidae respectively.

Contents
1 Morphology
2 Behaviour
2.1 Breeding
2.2 Diet
2.3 Calls
3 Systematics
3.1 Subfamily Cuculinae
3.2 Subfamily Phaenicophaeinae
3.3 Subfamily Coccyzinae
3.4 Subfamily Neomorphinae
3.5 Subfamily Centropodinae
3.6 Subfamily Crotophaginae
4 References
5 External links



[edit] Morphology
Cuckoos are birds of variable size with slender bodies, long tails and strong legs. Most occur in forests, but some prefer more open country. Most are insect eaters, with hairy caterpillars, which are avoided by many birds, being a speciality. Cuckoos range in size from the Little Bronze Cuckoo, at 17 g and 15 cm (6 inches), to the Channel-billed Cuckoo, at 630 g (1.4 lbs) and 63 cm (25 inches).

Cuckoo genera differ in the number of primary wing feathers as below.

Phaenicophaeus, Coccyzus, Piaya - 9
Cuculus - 9 or 10
Pachycoccyx, Clamator levaillantii, Centropus - 10
Microdynamis, Eudynamys,Clamator glandarius - 11
Some coucals - 12
Scythrops novaehollandiae - 13

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Breeding

This Reed Warbler is raising the young of a Common Cuckoo, the best-known cuckooMany of the Old World species and some New World species are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other birds. The best-known example is the European Common Cuckoo. The cuckoo egg hatches earlier than the host's, and the cuckoo chick grows faster; in most cases the chick evicts the eggs or young of the host species. The chick has no time to learn this behavior, so it must be an instinct passed on genetically. The mother still feeds the cuckoo chick as if it were her own, the chick's open mouth serving as a sign stimulus for the host to feed it.[1]

Female parasitic-cuckoos seem to specialize and lay eggs that closely resemble the eggs of their chosen host. This has also been aided by natural selection, as some birds are able to distinguish cuckoo eggs from their own, leading to those eggs least like the host's being thrown out of the nest.[1] Parasitic cuckoos are grouped into gentes, with each gens specializing in a particular host. There is some evidence that the gentes are genetically different from one another.

The roadrunners, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis all build their own nests, as do most American cuckoos. Most of these species nest in trees or bushes, but the coucals lay their eggs in nests on the ground or in low shrubs. These large tropical cuckoos are capable of taking vertebrate prey such as lizards. Though on some occasions non-parasitic cuckoos parasitize other species, the parent still helps feed the chick.

Non-parasitic cuckoos, like most other non-passerines, lay white eggs, but many of the parasitic species lay coloured eggs to match those of their passerine hosts.


[edit] Diet

Unlike most cuckoos, the Asian Koel is mostly frugiverous.Most cuckoos are insectivorous; and in particular are specialised in eating caterpillars, including noxious hairy types avoided by other birds. They will also take a wide range of other insects and animal prey. The lizard-cuckoos of the Caribbean have, in the relative absence of birds of prey, specialised in taking lizards. Larger, ground types also feed variously on snakes, lizards, small rodents, and other birds, which they bludgeon with their strong bills.

Several koels, couas and the Channel-billed Cuckoo feed mainly on fruit,[2] but they are not exclusively frugivores. The parasitic koels and Channel-billed Cuckoo in particular consume mainly fruit when raised by fruigivore hosts such as the Figbird and Pied Currawong. Other species will occasionally take fruit as well.


[edit] Calls

The African Cuckoo was identified as a separate species on the basis of its call.Cuckoos are often highly secretive and in many cases best known for their wide repetoire of calls. The cuckoo family gets its English and scientific names from the call of the Common Cuckoo, which is also familiar from cuckoo clocks. Some of the names of other species and genera are also derived from their calls, for example the koels of Asia and Australasia. In most cuckoos the calls are distinctive to particular species, and are useful for identification. Several cryptic species have been identified on the basis of their calls.