The last Cuckoo: postscript

The last Cuckoo to be recorded in Northants in 2011 was on 26th August at Earls Barton GP – perhaps the individual below, which was photographed there on 14th August. Compare this rufous morph juvenile with yesterday’s grey morph at Crick. The white tips to the scapulars, wing coverts and tertials, along with the barred rump, rule out the rare ‘hepatic’ morph adult female.

Thanks to Clive Bowley for supplying the image.