Lesser Cuckoo Cuculus poliocephalus Scientific name definitions

22–27 cm; 40–59 g. Adult male slate-grey above, tail and uppertail-coverts contrastingly blackish, tail with white tip and white spots at sides; bend of wing below unbarred white; throat and breast light grey, belly white with black bars, undertail-coverts often also barred black; eyering yellow, iris dark brown, bill black with yellow base, feet tan-yellow. Female similar, sometimes with breast washed rufous; also occurs in rufous morph , with head and upperparts rufous, back and wings barred rufous and black, rump and uppertail-coverts plain rufous. Juvenile slate-grey with white bars above, face black with white bars, breast and belly barred black and white; rufous morph barred tawny above, barred brown and buff below.

N Pakistan (2 Rasmussen, P. C., and J. C. Anderton (2012). Birds of South Asia. The Ripley Guide. Volumes 1 and 2. Second edition. National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Michigan State University and Lynx Edicions, Washington, DC, Michigan, MI, and Barcelona, Spain. Close ) and Kashmir E through Himalayan foothills to Khasi and Naga Hills, N Myanmar and N Indochina, and across China (including Taiwan and Hainan, where seems to be resident (1 Payne, R. B. (2005). The Cuckoos. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK and New York, NY, USA. Close , 3 Erritzøe, J., C. F. Mann, F. P. Brammer, and R. A. Fuller (2012). Cuckoos of the World. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ) ) to Ussuriland, Korea and Japan. Winters in Sri Lanka and E Africa.

Forests, both broadleaf and pine, scrub, second growth; in Ussuriland in broadleaf forests of birches (Betula), hornbeams (Carpinus), maples (Acer) and oaks (Quercus). Mostly between 1500 m and 3660 m in Himalayas; in Japan usually to 1200 m, sometimes to 2300 m. In non-breeding season in Africa, this is only cuckoo noted in pine forest plantations, similar to its habitat in breeding area in India.

Migratory, entire breeding population apparently moving SW or S to wintering grounds. Winters in peninsular India, Sri Lanka and also in E Africa; occurs in Seychelles on autumn (Nov) and spring (Apr) passage, and more exceptionally has been recorded as a vagrant on Amsterdam I (4 Roux, J.P. and Martinez, J. (1987). Rare, vagrant and introduced birds at Amsterdam and Saint Paul Islands, southern Indian Ocean. Cormorant. 14(1–2): 3–19. Close , 5 Ausilio, E. and Zotier, R. (1989). Vagrant birds at îles Kerguelen, southern Indian Ocean. Cormorant. 17: 9–18. Close ). Almost unknown in Thailand, where only three specimens known (all from N in May). Present in Kenya Nov–April: one ringed in coastal Kenya in Nov recovered inland in Kenya in Dec; birds in Apr clearly departing migrants, as they are fat and silent.

Insects, mainly caterpillars  (geometrids, noctuids), also beetles, hymenoptera, mantids.

Loud , husky chattering song , “eat your chóky pepper”, comprising six notes at 1·5–2·5 kHz, rising and falling in pitch.

Breeds May–Jul. Brood-parasitic: hosts small warblers, wren-babblers (Pnoepyga) and shortwings (Brachypteryx) in India, Japanese Bush-warbler (Horornis diphone) and other small songbirds in Korea and Japan (e.g. thrushes, buntings and rosefinches). Eggs in Japan and Russia unmarked brown, mean 21 mm × 16 mm; in India, similar unmarked brown eggs from oviduct of laying females resemble cuckoo eggs found in nests of Niltava flycatchers; other eggs from laying females in India are unmarked white, resembling cuckoo eggs from nests of Large Crowned Warbler (Phylloscopus occipitalis). Incubation period 14 days (6 Uchida, H. (2011). Breeding biology of the Little Cuckoo Cuculus poliocephalus: a brood parasite specializing in one host species, the Japanese Bush Warbler Cettia diphone, in Honshu, Japan. Jap. J. Orn.. 60(1): 78–87. Close ) and fledging period 15 days.

Not globally threatened. Few data on abundance; common to fairly common locally in Nepal. Populations depend on maintaining habitat and numbers of its host species. Not uncommon in winter in E Africa, but considered rare in winter in Sri Lanka.