The common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus)
All of you have heard this bird, but few have seen her.
The bird is quite secretive, this is due to hers behavior. The cuckoo is a nesting parasite, and in order to put an egg in nest, she carefully scouts the territory for the presence of suitable bird species. After she found a future prey, she hides and waits until the bird sitting on the eggs flies away, and flies faster to the nest to lay an egg. This sabotage operation occurs in the collaboration of male and female. The male calls the female, distracts the attention of the victim, and the female does her job.
In this old photo a male, shot in the summer of 2017. I tried to take a photo for a very long time, starting in May, when cuckoos appeared in the forest. They "cooked" at the very tops, and as soon i went to the sound, they immediately flew away. And only in June it turned out to take a photo. And then it happened by accident. I was just walking, when suddenly a cuckoo took off from the ground and sat on a branch. I was lucky that I reacted quickly, because after a few seconds the bird flew away.