Common Hawk-Cuckoo

Hierococcyx varius

Common Hawk-Cuckoo (Hierococcyx varius)
Image: Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA, wikipedia

The common hawk-cuckoo, popularly known as the brainfever bird, is a medium-sized cuckoo resident in the Indian subcontinent. It bears a close resemblance to the shikra, even in its style of flying and landing on a perch. The resemblance to hawks gives this group the generic name of hawk-cuckoo; like many other cuckoos, these are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of babblers. During their breeding season in summer males produce loud, repetitive three-note calls that are well-rendered as brain-fever, the second note being longer and higher pitched. These notes rise to a crescendo before ending abruptly and repeat after a few minutes; the calling may go on through the day, well after dusk and before dawn. Source

Where is the Common Hawk-Cuckoo now?

In the last 8 weeks this bird was recorded 2,426 times across 6 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

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How the Common Hawk-Cuckoo moves through the year

Over the weeks it was present in the past year, its centre in Asia ranged from 9°N in July to 28°N in June, about 2,100 km apart.

Related species

Figures are effort corrected and come from automatic sound identification, which makes mistakes. How this is measured and how it compares with human observers.