Kathryn Carroll, age 12, of Haynesville, Louisiana, for her question:

 Is there really a rain crow?

There is a bird that people call a rain crow, though he is not a true crow and not especially fond of the rain. Officially, he is a native North American cuckoo. Both the yellow billed and black billed species are handsome members of the large bird family Cuculidae. They are shy birds and as a rule we know they are there only when we hear their soft cuckoo cries in the leafy woods. But old timers insist that their cries become louder and more frequent dust before a storm breaks. So the cuckoo gained a reputation as a weather prophet, known as the rain crow.

In the West Indies and South America, other cuckoos species are called rainbirds because people think that their cries predict showers. India and England have other rainbirds. What's more, the name "plover" is coined from an older word for rain. Perhaps some or all of these birds actually do vary their cries before the weather turns rainy.