In many hundreds - thousands - of zoo visits, I don't think I've ever seen a common cuckoo on display - which is something I regret. Those familiar but often unseen bird species, such as the cuckoo, would, I think, make a fascinating display in a zoo - if they could be maintained well. Do you know if these Pilsen birds are deliberately being held, or are they wild 'rescue' birds that have come, injured, to the zoo?
I was under the impression that they were rescue birds.
When I visited the zoo last year there were three Common Cuckoos in this off show area of Plzen, one of which was extremely bedraggled looking.
Warsaw Zoo has had Common Cuckoos in the past which were rescued.
At Walsrode I took care of the species. A single bird was kept during the summer in the large European aviary together with birds like Ruff, Acocet, European Roller and Bee-eater. It's quite a shy species and I guess only a few visitor will have seen it.
During Autumn the bird always became very restless - migration-time - and it was during this time not possible to keep it in a normal aviary with wire-mesh and we had to place it in an aviary with walls of clothing. During the winter the bird calmed down again and also in spring it didn't show any restless behaviour. So an very intresting species but not the easiest one to keep in captivity.
