Summer is the perfect season to photograph colorful birds.

Common cuckoo
The cuckoo’s is well known for its iconic sound that announces spring. It is only in the UK for a short period, arriving from late March or early April and leaving again in July or August for the winter in central Africa. Juveniles leave a month later. It is a long, slim bird with a small head and downcurved bill, drooped wings, and broad tail. It has grey upperparts and barred underparts with white spots on its tail. Some females are slightly buffy or even rufous, but sexes cannot generally be distinguished.

It flies with quick wing beats and its head slightly raised. Look out for it over farmland, the edges of woodlands and around reedbeds. Its soft call carries far but can often be confused with that of the collared dove.

Cuckoos are brood parasites and lay their eggs in the nests of other birds including reed warblers, meadow pipits, robins, and dunnocks. It can lay up to 25 eggs a season in different nests although the hosts will sometimes remove them if they are not fooled. Juveniles can be seen from late May.