Sense of Place

Tag: bird behavior

  • Rain Crows: Yellow- and Black-billed Cuckoos in American Culture

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    by Nicolette L. Cagle, August 24, 2026 In the last post, we investigated two North American cuckoos: The Black-billed and Yellow-billed Cuckoos. We followed them between continents and through forests whose resources pulse, including leaves bursting forth after monsoon rains, caterpillars swarming during outbreaks, and cicadas rising from the soil. Both cuckoo species respond strongly…

  • Following the Green Wave: How Cuckoos Track Rain, Caterpillars, and Cicadas

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    by Nicolette L. Cagle, August 14, 2026 In the last post, we followed the cuckoo family through deep time, from the early Cenozoic fossil record to the remarkable diversity of modern cuckoos. We also noted that the modern Cuckoo family extends beyond the notorious brood parasite, the Common Cuckoo, and embraces roadrunners, coucals, anis, koels,…

  • From the Time of the Cuckoos

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    by Nicolette L. Cagle, Ph.D., July 1, 2026 Before the cuckoo family (Cuculidae) embedded itself in the ancient rites of Hera in Greece or the cuckoo clock folk art of Germanic Europe, the cuckoo arose from the annals of deep time, straddling the devastation of the K-Pg boundary (66 Ma), when planet Earth lost 75%…