According to Konstantin Kreiser, of BirdLife International, this is happening because the “short-hop” migratory birds that cuckoos normally use as surrogate parents are flying north earlier from the Mediterranean basin.

By the time cuckoos arrive from southern Africa in April, many of these birds already have hatchlings and “they’ve missed the boat”, he said. “It’s a very good example of how climate change can bring confusion in the ecological system.”

As for native European birds, he warned that climate change represented a “grave threat” to most species and said these birds “will have to shift northwards or uphill” if they are to survive at all in a warmer world.