Editing Cuckoo (section)

== Distribution and habitat ==
{{more citations needed section|date=January 2019}}
[[File:Great Lizard-cuckoo (Coccyzus merlini), cropped.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[great lizard cuckoo]] is a large, insular cuckoo of the Caribbean.]]
The cuckoos have a [[cosmopolitan distribution]], ranging across all the world's continents except Antarctica. They are absent from the southwest of South America, the far north and northwest of North America, and the driest areas of the [[Middle East]] and [[North Africa]], although they occur there as passage [[bird migration|migrants]]. In the oceanic islands of the [[Atlantic]] and [[Indian Ocean]]s they generally only occur as [[vagrancy (biology)|vagrants]], but one species breeds on a number of [[Pacific]] islands and another is a winter migrant across much of the Pacific.<ref name = "Bogert">Bogert, C (1937) [http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/bitstream/2246/3850/1/N0933.pdf Birds collected during the Whitney South Sea Expedition. 34, The distribution and the migration of the long-tailed cuckoo (''Urodynamis taitensis'' Sparrman).] ''American Museum Novitates'' '''933''' 12 p.</ref>

The [[Cuculinae]] are the most widespread subfamily of cuckoos, and are distributed across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Oceania. Amongst the Phaenicophaeinae, the malkohas and Asian ground cuckoos are restricted to southern Asia, the couas are [[endemism|endemic]] to [[Madagascar]], and the [[yellowbill]] is widespread across Africa. The coucals are distributed from Africa through tropical Asia south into Australia and the [[Solomon Islands]]. The remaining three subfamilies have a New World distribution, all  are found in both North and South America. The Coccyzinae reach the furthest north of the three subfamilies, breeding in [[Canada]], whereas the anis reach as far north as [[Florida]] and the typical ground cuckoos are in the [[Southwest United States]].

For the cuckoos, suitable habitat provides a source of food, principally insects and especially caterpillars, and a place to breed. For [[brood parasite]]s the need is for suitable habitat for the host species. Cuckoos occur in a wide variety of [[habitat]]s. The majority of species occur in forests and woodland, principally in the evergreen rainforests of the tropics, where they are typically but not exclusively arboreal. Some species inhabit or are even restricted to [[mangrove]] forests. These include the [[little bronze cuckoo]] of [[Australia]], some malkohas, coucals, and the aptly named [[mangrove cuckoo]] of the [[New World]].{{sfn|Payne|1997|p=519}}

In addition to forests, some species of cuckoos occupy more open environments. This can include even arid areas such as deserts in the case of the [[greater roadrunner]] or the [[pallid cuckoo]]. Temperate migratory species, such as the common cuckoo, inhabit a wide range of habitats to make maximum use of the potential brood hosts, from reed beds (where they parasitise [[reed warbler]]s) to treeless moors, where they parasitise [[meadow pipit]]s.{{sfn|Payne|1997|p=519}}

=== Migration ===
[[File:Chestnut-winged Cuckoo in Singapore, Dec 2012, by William Lee.jpg|thumb|A [[chestnut-winged cuckoo]] in Singapore <!-- Is this a migratory species?  If so, clarify for the reader -->]]

Most species of cuckoo are sedentary, but some undertake regular seasonal [[bird migration|migrations]], and others undertake partial migrations over part of their range.

Species breeding at higher latitudes migrate to warmer climates during the winter due to food availability. The [[long-tailed cuckoo|long-tailed koel]], which breeds in New Zealand, flies to its wintering grounds in Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia, a feat described as "perhaps the most remarkable overwater migration of any land bird."<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Ellis | first1 = D | last2 = Kepler | first2 = C | last3 = Kepler | first3 = A | last4 = Teebaki | first4 = K | year = 1990 | title = Occurrence of the Longtailed Cuckoo ''Eudynamis taitensis'' on Caroline Atoll, Kiribati | url = http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=MU9900202.pdf | journal = Emu | volume = 90 | issue = 3| page = 202 | doi=10.1071/mu9900202| bibcode = 1990EmuAO..90..202E }}</ref> The yellow-billed cuckoo and black-billed cuckoo breed in North America and fly across the [[Caribbean Sea]], a nonstop flight of {{convert|4000|km|abbr=on}}. Other long migration flights include the [[lesser cuckoo]], which flies from Africa to [[India]], and the common cuckoo of Europe, which flies nonstop over the Mediterranean Sea and [[Sahara Desert]] on the voyage between Europe and central Africa.<ref name="BTO">[http://www.bto.org/science/migration/tracking-studies/cuckoo-tracking BTO Cuckoo migration tracking study]</ref>

Within Africa, 10 species make regular intracontinental migrations that are described as polarised. That is, they spend the nonbreeding season in the tropical centre of Africa and move north and south to breed in the more arid and open savannah and deserts.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Hockey | first1 = P | year = 2000 | title = Patterns and Correlates of Bird Migrations in Sub-Saharan Africa | journal = Emu | volume = 100 | issue = 5| pages = 401–17 | doi = 10.1071/MU0006S | bibcode = 2000EmuAO.100..401H | s2cid = 89071968 }}</ref> This is the same as the situation in the Neotropics, where no species have this migration pattern, or tropical Asia, where a single species does. About 83% of the Australian species are partial migrants within Australia or travel to [[New Guinea]] and [[Indonesia]] after the breeding season.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Chan | first1 = K | year = 2001 | title = Partial migration in Australian landbirds: a review | journal = Emu | volume = 101 | issue = 4| pages = 281–92 | doi = 10.1071/MU00034 | bibcode = 2001EmuAO.101..281C | s2cid = 82259620 }}</ref>

In some species, the migration is [[Diurnality|diurnal]], as in the [[channel-billed cuckoo]], or [[nocturnal]], as in the [[yellow-billed cuckoo]].