Ah, yes, the familiar sound of a cuckoo clock.

If you grew up in the 80s, it probably seemed like all the cool kids had a cuckoo clock hanging on their bedroom wall.

And of course, I'm talking about the

1880s. These clocks were hand-carved wooden miracles of clockwork technology, literally, that had a tiny

mechanical cuckoo bird inside. The cuckoo would pop out of a little door every hour on the

hour to jerk its body back and forth while

singing its iconic song. I'm not sure of kids who've grown up in the 21st century are

as familiar with Kuku Klox. Maybe. But I grew up in the 80s, the 1980s, and Kuku Klox showed up

in a lot of old cartoons. I remember when I first went birding in Europe many years later,

and I heard the song of the common cuckoo for the first time, in real life.

I was in Spain, and when I heard that sound, a big grin spread across my face.

Okay. and the song of the common cuckoo still makes me happy every time I hear it.

The common cuckoo, Cuculus, Canoris, and some of its cuckoo relatives have been culturally significant birds throughout history,

from ancient Greek mythology and the plays of Shakespeare to the folklore of India,

Japan, and Aboriginal Australia.

But perhaps the most culturally significant cuckoo of all time is Sunny.

Who you ask?

Sunny, the anthropomorphic cartoon mascot of Cocoa Puffs cereal.

You know, the maniacal orangish-brown creature that looks nothing like a real cuckoo?

In countless TV commercials since the 1960s,

Sunny has been losing his mind over the prospect of getting to eat some cocoa puffs cereal.

Cucco puffs! Yahu! I'm cuckoo for cocoa puffs!

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