The Common Cuckoo is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, the Cuculiformes, which also includes the roadrunners, the anis and the coucals. This species is a widespread summer migrant to Europe and Asia, and winters in Africa. It is a brood parasite, which lays its eggs in the nests of other bird species, particularly of Dunnocks, Meadow Pipits, and Eurasian Reed Warblers. This cuckoo is a greyish bird with a slender body, long tail and strong legs. The females only are sometimes brown, the "hepatic" phase. This is a reference to the liver-like colour of the female plumage in this phase, and not to hepatic physiology. It looks like a small bird of prey in flight, although the wings stay below the horizontal.