Great spotted cuckoo in Wales

This is a great spotted cuckoo video. They are south European birds; rare on the British isles.

From Pembrokeshire Birds in Wales:

Wednesday, 12 March 2014

Great Spotted Cuckoo – update

14:15

GS Cuckoo showing well on Golf Course near Penally Station, working it’s way back west.
(Mark Hipkin et al)

Posted by Richard Dobbins

Avian brood parasites lay eggs in the nests of other birds, which raise the unrelated chicks and typically suffer partial or complete loss of their own brood. However, carrion crows Corvus corone corone can benefit from parasitism by the great spotted cuckoo Clamator glandarius. Parasitized nests have lower rates of predation-induced failure due to production of a repellent secretion by cuckoo chicks, but among nests that are successful, those with cuckoo chicks fledge fewer crows. The outcome of these counterbalancing effects fluctuates between parasitism and mutualism each season, depending on the intensity of predation pressure: here.

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