Jill Baird, age 12, , of Atlanta, Ga., for her question:
Does the rain crow sound like a dove?
His favorite song has a mournful sound, somewhat like the soft cooing of a dove though more complicated. The charming rain crow is a native North American. He is seldom seen and his sad song is more noticeable just before the rain when most other birds are silent. In other parts of the world he has a couple of cousins which also act as weather prophets.
Our native rain crow is not related to the crows and does not look like them. Though he has a soft sad cooing song, he is not related to the doves, either. He is a member of the cuckoo family, with 730 or so cousins widely scattered through many lands around the world. Most birds are excellent parents, but a few of the cuckoos of Earope have bad reputations in this department. They build no nests and place their eggs in the crowded nests of other unsuspecting bird parents.
The lovely cuckoo of North America builds a woodland nest and rarely if ever places an egg out for adoption. He looks somewhat like a very handsome dove with a snowy white weskit, an extra long tail and a slim gracefully curved bill. He may be a black billed or yellow billed cuckoo. His back, wings and his small cap are chestnut brown, and his splendid tail has wide bands of rich brown and white.
He tends to keep to the woods, and he often feeds on the hairy caterpillars that devour our crops. We do not notice him as he flies from bough to shady bough, and usually his soft voice is lost in the chorus of noisier birds. But when skies are cloudy, most other birds seek shelter and stay quiet. Not so the rain crow.
He continues to sing, even when the sky is overcast with heavy rain clouds. This is when we are most likely to hear his soft mournful cl uck, cl uck, cl uck cow cow cow. He repeats his song again and again, often just before the rain comes showering down. Naturally, his mournful message seems to come as a weather warning.
The lazy English cuckoo also has a reputation as a weather prophet. He flies south to spend the winter in a warmer climate, but he returns very early in the season. People there say that he heralds the spring because his soft coo coo, coo coo call is heard before the other birds arrive for their nesting season. By the way, the famous cuckoo clock was named in honor of this European bird.
Another cuckoo lives in the Malay jungles, where the dry summer is scorching hot and the winter season is deluged with monsoon rains. He has a shrill whistling song. People there call him the burong landas, which means the bird that calls forth the rainy season.
Many very gaudy cuckoos live in the jungles of Asia. Some are as big as chickens. Another of our native cuckoo cousins enjoys life in the Southwestern deserts. He is the leggy road runner, who loves to race along beside passing cars just for fun. This sassy character got himself appointed as the state bird of New Mexico. Nobody has awarded this high honor to any other member of the cuckoo family.