The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The genus name clamator is Latin for "shouter" from clamare, "to shout". There are 54 species of Old World cuckoos. Two live in Europe: most live in Africa, Asia and Australasia.Cuckoos have played a role in human culture for thousands of years, appearing in Greek mythology as sacred to the goddess Hera. In Europe, the cuckoo is associated with spring, and with cuckoldry, for example in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost. In India, cuckoos are sacred to Kamadeva, the god of desire and longing, whereas in Japan, the cuckoo symbolises unrequited love.
See also: Common cuckoo, Common hawk cuckoo, Diderick cuckoo, Greater coucal, Great spotted cuckoo, Jacobin cuckoo, White browed coucal.
