Current Affairs Cuckoo, declining in numbers in Czech Republic,
named Bird of Year The common cuckoo has just been named Bird of
the Year 2010 by the Czech Society for Ornithology. One of the
aims of the annual award is to draw attention to the problems
faced by particular species of birds. In the case of the cuckoo,
ornithologists report a baffling fall in numbers over the last
few decades. The Czech Society for Ornithology has just named
the cuckoo the Bird of the Year 2010. The head of the
organisation Zdeněk Vermouzek explains why. “Given that this is
the Year of Biodiversity we wanted to choose a breed that would
be sufficiently well known to all Czechs. I’d go so far as to
say that there’s nobody in this country who doesn’t know the
cuckoo, or hasn’t heard of it. At the same time, the bird has
broader cultural significance, if we consider various
superstitions and lore linked to particular times of the year.”
Czech ornithologists say that as elsewhere there has been a
steep decline in the cuckoo populat