(cuculus canorus)
The (Common) Cuckoo is a summer visitor to Scotland usually arriving in late April. Its characteristic call is one of the sounds of spring and it can be heard echoing around a grassy moor. The numbers of birds returning to Scotland has been steady in contrast to the declining fortunes of the birds in England.
The photographs here are of a juvenile bird which lingered at Cathkin marsh near Glasgow long after the date when it should have embarked on its migration to Africa for the winter. Sadly the bird was found dead a few days after these photographs were taken.