# How did the cuckoo call become a synonym for someone who is crazy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 23, 2002, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-cuckoo-call-become-a-synonym-for-someone-who-is-crazy/120476 "2002-07-23T23:54:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2018, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-cuckoo-call-become-a-synonym-for-someone-who-is-crazy/120476/21 "2018-10-30T15:37:59Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > So, if the cuckoo is a brood parasite (lays its eggs in another bird’s nest), and presumably doesn’t need to protect a territory to feed its young, why does it call all the time? To attract females. Many species call to attract females even if they don’t defend territories. And feeding territories aren’t the only kind of territory. Males may call to defend their area against other males in order to have exclusive access to any females that enter it. And in any case small birds nesting in the male’s territory can be seen as a “resource” needed for breeding. A male defending nesting areas for small birds could be more attractive to females for that reason. > [@Quercus](#): > > But once mating season is over (sometime in the spring I assume), why would the cuckoo care about other males coming along? Why are you assuming that the cuckoo calls at any time besides the breeding season? In temperate areas small birds may breed raise two or even three broods in a spring/summer, so a cuckoo may want to call throughout the potential time nests are available to females. (This said, I haven’t checked to see what the actual calling period is.) ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2018, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-cuckoo-call-become-a-synonym-for-someone-who-is-crazy/120476/22 "2018-10-30T15:49:21Z")
> [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](#): > > I think coo-coo is the inspiration for cray-cray. no, that is crazy but in baby talk. It is very modern. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2018, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-cuckoo-call-become-a-synonym-for-someone-who-is-crazy/120476/23 "2018-10-30T15:57:18Z")
A couple decades or so ago it was discovered that female birds sing quite a bit too. Female bird researchers found this out, and male researchers were hard to convince of the fact. The idea of men I mean male birds defending territories and attracting women I mean female birds was too entrenched in their minds. It is still understudied. cite:[Scientists remind their peers: Female birds sing, too -- ScienceDaily](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180314092348.htm) ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2018, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-cuckoo-call-become-a-synonym-for-someone-who-is-crazy/120476/24 "2018-10-30T16:03:12Z")
> [@Arkcon](#): > > Maybe cuckoos have to drive all rivals away. If too many congregate in one area, they could deplete all broods to parasitize. I am not sure about that but I can confirm that the Indian Hawk Cuckoo has a pretty large territory. Usually you only hear one cuckoo at a time so I would guess it has a terrritory of about a mile in diameter. Also as a child, I would mimic the cuckoo’s call by whistling and it would look around like crazy to spot its competitor.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2018, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-cuckoo-call-become-a-synonym-for-someone-who-is-crazy/120476/25 "2018-10-30T16:17:17Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > A couple decades or so ago it was discovered that female birds sing quite a bit too. Female bird researchers found this out, and male researchers were hard to convince of the fact. The idea of men I mean male birds defending territories and attracting women I mean female birds was too entrenched in their minds. It is still understudied. > > cite:[Scientists remind their peers: Female birds sing, too | ScienceDaily](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180314092348.htm) I fixed the link above. Well, no. It’s been known for a long time (not just “a couple decades”) that female birds sing, especially as duets with males. No, it wasn’t “found out” by those female researchers, and male researchers didn’t need to be convinced, since it was already well known. They are correct to point out, however, that female song has been understudied, and that many studies do assume that all singing birds are male. However, in most species, especially in the temperate zone, males do almost all the singing, and its function in defending territories and attracting females has been well documented. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2018, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-cuckoo-call-become-a-synonym-for-someone-who-is-crazy/120476/26 "2018-10-30T17:48:32Z")
> [@Miss\_M](#): > > In the novel Wuthering Heights, Hindley refers to Heathcliff as a cuckoo, meaning an imposter. Cuckoo birds are brood parasites, meaning that they lay their eggs in other birds’ nests. Then the unwitting birds raise it as their own if it is not discovered and ejected. The novel was published around 1840 so the common use at that time was used on orphans and bastards to mean they weren’t quite right; didn’t quite fit in. This was taken to mean by some as “behaving oddly” and it was evolved to describe the mentally deficient and those with psychiatric issues. Thus today when someone uses the label it is meant that “they are off in the head”. I understood the term Cuckold to imply the wife was unfaithful and so the husband was unwittingly raising someone else’s child as his own - a similar concept as the bird itself. The other thing I recall from popular wisdom was that the cuckoo chick would often grow much bigger than the other chicks, being from a bigger bird typically than the unfortunate host. It may even (deliberately?) push rival chicks out of the nest, leaving us with the image of a tiny adult bird like a sparrow frantically instinctively trying to feed a fluffy demanding (greedy) chick even bigger than itself. One can imagine the social commentary in that image, along with the image of a doting husband being fooled by an unfaithful wife. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2018, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-cuckoo-call-become-a-synonym-for-someone-who-is-crazy/120476/27 "2018-10-30T17:54:53Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Are there no other common European birds that do this? In Robert E Horward’s _Pigeons From Hell_ he mentions that Whiporwills are believed to be precursors to death. Having been cursed with one once or twice I can believe it’s call would drive you crazy. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2018, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-cuckoo-call-become-a-synonym-for-someone-who-is-crazy/120476/28 "2018-10-30T18:09:53Z")
Anybody else try to click the Geocities cite on this super zombie? ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-cuckoo-call-become-a-synonym-for-someone-who-is-crazy/120476/29 "2018-10-31T20:49:20Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > The European Cuckoo repeats its call incessantly through the day. Therefore the name of the bird became used with someone who speaks senselessly and pointlessly. How I wish I could hear again the cuckoo’s incessant call ! But in my area I haven’t heard it in the last 20 years or more. Before that it was common. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-cuckoo-call-become-a-synonym-for-someone-who-is-crazy/120476/30 "2018-10-31T21:22:33Z")
> [@Gymnopithys](#): > > How I wish I could hear again the cuckoo’s incessant call ! But in my area I haven’t heard it in the last 20 years or more. Before that it was common. With the right kind of wall clock, you can hear it again. On the hour, incessantly. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-cuckoo-call-become-a-synonym-for-someone-who-is-crazy/120476/31 "2018-10-31T22:20:56Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > With the right kind of wall clock, you can hear it again. On the hour, incessantly. For the other fifty-nine minutes, it is completely cessant. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-cuckoo-call-become-a-synonym-for-someone-who-is-crazy/120476.md?page=1)