Susan Burchfield, age 12, of Lowell, North Carolina, for her question:
What is the raincrow?
Our raincrow is not really a crow. We also have a rain dove, who is not really a dove. Both of these lovely birds are cuckoos, with soft crooning voices. They visit us during their summer nesting season, but usually stay out of sight. However, we sometimes notice their sweet sad voices before an evening thunder shower.
If you ever chance to catch a glimpse of the raincrow, you know in a moment that he is not related to a sooty black, loud mouthed crow. The slim graceful creature is about the size of a large robin, plus an extra long tail. His vest and chest are snowy white. His cap and his back, his wings and his tail are dusky grey.
He has a slightly curved cuckoo type bill and his cuckoo type toes perch with two in front and two behind. Actually our so called raincrow is the black billed cuckoo. In summer he nests from southern Canada, all the way south to Florida though not in the Western mountains.
We seldom see him because he is a shy bird who keeps to the woods and thickets.. Usually his cuckoo call is lost in the mingled chorus of summer songbirds. But we may notice it before an evening thunder shower. Then his deep sad voice says, Tut tut, Tut tut. And with a mournful sob he adds, C1 uck cl uck, cl uck cow cow cow.
Naturally he came to be called the raincrow because he seems to announce a downpour. But actually he may not be the weather prophet he is cracked up to be. It could be that his deep voice happens to travel farther in the moist stormy air. What's more, most of the other birds sink into silence as a storm approaches. This gives the black billed cuckoo his chance to be heard.
His cousin, the yellow billed cuckoo, is known as the rain dove. His white underparts are similar to those of the raincrow, but his greyish upper parts are tinged with rusty brown and there are bands of white ribbon across his long tail. And his bill, of course is yellow, not black.
The yellow billed cuckoo, alias the rain dove, nests from British Columbia, southward as far as Florida. Like his black billed cousin, he spends the winter way down in South America. These cuckoo birds are said to lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. Actually, they build rather shoddy nests and almost always bring up their own children. Only rarely, very rarely do they place an egg out for adoption.
It so happens that the cuckoos help to increase our food supplies. This is because they feed on insects, especially the tent caterpillars and hairy caterpillars that do enormous damage to our crops. These pests devour our orchard fruits. The cuckoos also eat grasshoppers and beetles that attack our vegetable gardens. And when army worms attack, the black billed cuckoo has been known to wipe them out.