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The cuckoo has arrived. A bird that usually comes in the spring and is quite difficult to observe. I have captured these images in Casserres (Berguedà) for the Photos of the Readers of La Vanguardia, with a video that also allows us to listen to the unique song of this friendly bird.
As detailed in the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library, the proverb tells us that this bird not only does not announce the arrival of spring, but it could cause it to rain again.
In this way, some of the proverbs associated with this bird are: “When the cuckoo sings, whatever rains in eight days is wiped away in one”; “When the cuckoo sings, during the day it is wet and at night it is dry”; “When the cuckoo comes, then it is spring; if the cuckoo has not arrived yet, then spring has not begun.”
The cuckoo and its song have traditionally marked the transition from winter to spring. Hearing their song in the forests and fields, as soon as the snows and cold of winter dissipate, marks the passage to the spring season. He is the great herald of spring.
And, furthermore, the cuckoo is a bird that practically only sings in spring, since when the temperature rises and the heat of summer arrives, it can be said that it remains quite mute.
The cuckoo owes its name to its characteristic song, the famous “cu cu”, which is easily heard in the forests in spring. This distinctive song corresponds to the male’s nuptial call and coincides with the arrival of spring.
The cuckoo’s song has fascinated humans so much that they even invented the so-called “cuckoo clock”, generally equipped with a pendulum and gong. It is characterized by having an opening through which, every half hour, a bird-shaped automaton emerges, emitting a song whose sounds resemble the onomatopoeia “cuckoo.” This mechanism for reproducing the cuckoo’s song was installed in most cuckoo clocks in the 18th century.
