Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) - BirdLife species factsheet

Common Cuckoo Cuculus canorus

Current view: Data table and detailed info

Taxonomy

Taxonomic source(s)
AERC TAC. 2003. AERC TAC Checklist of bird taxa occurring in Western Palearctic region, 15th Draft. Available at: http://www.aerc.eu/DOCS/Bird_taxa_of_the_WP15.xls.
Cramp, S. and Simmons, K.E.L. (eds). 1977-1994. Handbook of the birds of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The birds of the western Palearctic. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.

IUCN Red List criteria met and history

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2024	Least Concern
2016	Least Concern
2012	Least Concern
2009	Least Concern
2008	Least Concern
2004	Least Concern
2000	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1994	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1988	Lower Risk/Least Concern

Species attributes

Migratory status	full migrant	Forest dependency	medium
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

Range

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	51,500,000 km²	medium
Extent of Occurrence (non-breeding)	57,900,000 km²	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

Population

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	34600000-54400000 mature individuals	poor	estimated	2018
Population trend	stable	-	suspected	-
Generation length	3.79 years	-	-	-

Population justification: In Europe, the total population size is estimated at 8,640,000-13,600,000 mature individuals, with 4,320,000-6,800,000 breeding calling males (BirdLife International 2021), and comprises approximately 25% of the species' global range, so a very preliminary estimate of the global population size is between 34,600,000-54,400,000 mature individuals, although further validation of this estimate is desirable. In Europe, the species' population has declined in the west of its range but remained stable in the east, and is thus considered likely to have undergone only a small overall decrease over three generations (11.37 years) (BirdLife International 2021). Based on these data, and the proportion of the species' global range that this region holds, the global population size is considered to be stable over three generations.

Trend justification: .

Country/territory distribution

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Afghanistan	extant	native	yes
Albania	extant	native	yes
Algeria	extant	native
Andorra	extant	native	yes
Angola	extant	native
Armenia	extant	native	yes
Austria	extant	native	yes
Azerbaijan	extant	native	yes
Bahrain	extant	native		yes
Bangladesh	extant	native
Barbados	extant	vagrant
Belarus	extant	native	yes
Belgium	extant	native	yes
Benin	extant	native
Bhutan	extant	native	yes
Bosnia and Herzegovina	extant	native	yes
Botswana	extant	native
Bulgaria	extant	native	yes
Burkina Faso	extant	native
Burundi	extant	native
Cameroon	extant	native
Cape Verde	extant	vagrant
Central African Republic	extant	native
Chad	extant	native
China (mainland)	extant	native	yes
Comoros	extant	vagrant
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	extant	native
Côte d'Ivoire	extant	vagrant
Croatia	extant	native	yes
Czechia	extant	native	yes
Denmark	extant	native	yes	yes
Djibouti	extant	native
Egypt	extant	native
Eritrea	extant	native
Estonia	extant	native	yes
Ethiopia	extant	native
Faroe Islands (to Denmark)	extant	vagrant
Finland	extant	native	yes
France	extant	native	yes
Gabon	extant	native
Gambia	extant	vagrant
Georgia	extant	native	yes
Germany	extant	native	yes	yes
Ghana	extant	native
Gibraltar (to UK)	extant	native	yes
Greece	extant	native	yes	yes
Greenland (to Denmark)	extant	vagrant
Guinea	extant	native
Guinea-Bissau	extant	native
Hong Kong (China)	extant	native
Hungary	extant	native	yes
Iceland	extant	vagrant
India	extant	native	yes
Indonesia	extant	vagrant
Iran, Islamic Republic of	extant	native	yes	yes
Iraq	extant	native		yes
Ireland	extant	native	yes
Israel	extant	native	yes
Italy	extant	native	yes
Japan	extant	native	yes
Jordan	extant	native		yes
Kazakhstan	extant	native	yes
Kenya	extant	native
Kuwait	extant	native		yes
Kyrgyzstan	extant	native	yes
Laos	extant	native
Latvia	extant	native	yes
Lebanon	extant	native	yes	yes
Lesotho	extant	vagrant
Liberia	extant	native
Libya	extant	native
Liechtenstein	extant	native	yes
Lithuania	extant	native	yes
Luxembourg	extant	native	yes
Malawi	extant	native
Maldives	extant	native
Mali	extant	native
Malta	extant	native	yes
Mauritania	extant	native
Mayotte (to France)	extant	vagrant
Moldova	extant	native	yes
Mongolia	extant	native	yes
Montenegro	extant	native	yes
Morocco	extant	native
Mozambique	extant	native
Myanmar	extant	native	yes
Namibia	extant	native
Nepal	extant	native	yes
Netherlands	extant	native	yes
Niger	extant	native
Nigeria	extant	native
North Korea	extant	native	yes
North Macedonia	extant	native	yes
Norway	extant	native	yes
Oman	extant	native		yes
Pakistan	extant	native	yes
Palau	extant	vagrant
Palestine	extant	native		yes
Poland	extant	native	yes
Portugal	extant	native	yes
Qatar	extant	native		yes
Romania	extant	native	yes
Russia	extant	native	yes
Russia (Asian)	extant	native	yes
Russia (Central Asian)	extant	native	yes
Russia (European)	extant	native	yes
Rwanda	extant	native
Saudi Arabia	extant	native		yes
Senegal	extant	native
Serbia	extant	native	yes
Seychelles	extant	vagrant
Sierra Leone	extant	native
Slovakia	extant	native	yes
Slovenia	extant	native	yes
Somalia	extant	native
South Africa	extant	native
South Korea	extant	native	yes
South Sudan	extant	native		yes
Spain	extant	native	yes
Sri Lanka	extant	native
Sudan	extant	native
Sweden	extant	native	yes
Switzerland	extant	native	yes
Syria	extant	native	yes	yes
Taiwan, China	extant	vagrant
Tajikistan	extant	native	yes
Tanzania	extant	native
Thailand	extant	native	yes
Togo	extant	native
Tunisia	extant	native
Türkiye	extant	native	yes
Turkmenistan	extant	native	yes
Uganda	extant	native
Ukraine	extant	native	yes
United Arab Emirates	extant	native		yes
United Kingdom	extant	native	yes
USA	extant	vagrant
Uzbekistan	extant	native	yes
Vietnam	extant	native
Western Sahara	extant	native
Yemen	extant	native		yes
Zambia	extant	native
Zimbabwe	extant	native

Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitats & altitude

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Pastureland	suitable	breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Rural Gardens	suitable	non-breeding
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	major	non-breeding
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Montane	suitable	breeding
Forest	Temperate	suitable	breeding
Grassland	Temperate	suitable	breeding
Savanna	Dry	major	non-breeding
Shrubland	Subtropical/Tropical High Altitude	suitable	breeding
Shrubland	Temperate	suitable	breeding
Altitude	0 - 3800 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Utilisation

Purpose	Scale
Food - human	subsistence, national
Pets/display animals, horticulture	subsistence, national

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Common Cuckoo Cuculus canorus. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/common-cuckoo-cuculus-canorus on 23/11/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 23/11/2024.