Plaintive cuckoo facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Plaintive cuckoo |
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|---|---|
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| at Nai Yang, Phuket | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Cacomantis
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| Species: |
merulinus
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The plaintive cuckoo (scientific name: Cacomantis merulinus) is a small, interesting bird from the cuckoo family. You can find these birds across Asia, from countries like India, Nepal, and China all the way to Indonesia.
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About the Plaintive Cuckoo
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The plaintive cuckoo is a pretty small bird. It measures about 21 to 24 centimeters (8 to 9.5 inches) long.
What They Look Like
Adult male cuckoos are grey-brown on their backs. Their bellies are orange, and their heads, throats, and upper chests are grey. Their tail feathers have white tips. Their legs and feet are yellow, and their eyes are red. The top part of their beak is black, and the bottom part is yellow.
Adult female cuckoos can look like the males. However, they often have a special "hepatic" form. This means they are reddish-brown on top with dark stripes. Their undersides are lighter with fainter stripes. They also have a light stripe above their eye. Their tails have dark stripes all the way along.
Young cuckoos, called juveniles, look similar to the hepatic females. But they are paler and have dark streaks instead of stripes on their heads and throats.
Their Calls
The male plaintive cuckoo has several unique whistling calls. One call is a series of three-note sounds that go higher and higher. Another call is a series of 11 or 12 notes that go lower and lower. These calls are often described as "plaintive," which means sad or mournful.
Where Plaintive Cuckoos Live
There are four main types, or subspecies, of the plaintive cuckoo. Each type lives in a different area:
- C. m. merulinus lives in the Philippines. It is common on many of the larger islands there.
- C. m. querulus is the most common type. It lives in north-east India, Bangladesh, southern China, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. This type often migrates south for the winter from China.
- C. m. threnodes is found in the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo.
- C. m. lanceolatus lives in Java, Bali, and Sulawesi.
The grey-bellied cuckoo was once thought to be a type of plaintive cuckoo. But now, scientists usually consider it a separate species.
Plaintive Cuckoo Life and Habits
Plaintive cuckoos live in many different places. They like the edges of forests, open woodland areas, and scrubland. You can also find them in grasslands, farmland, parks, and gardens.
They mostly eat invertebrates, which are small creatures like insects. These birds are usually found alone and can be hard to spot.
Reproduction and Brood Parasitism
The plaintive cuckoo is a brood parasite. This means that instead of building its own nest, the female cuckoo lays her eggs in the nests of other small birds. These host birds include cisticolas, prinias, and tailorbirds.
The cuckoo's eggs look similar to the host bird's eggs, but they are larger. Sometimes, small birds will try to scare away the cuckoo from their nests. This behavior is called mobbing.
