Bird watching in Thailand - Plaintive Cuckoo / นกอีวาบตั๊กแตน

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Plaintive Cuckoo, Cacomantis merulinus, นกอีวาบตั๊กแตน

The Plaintive Cuckoo (Cacomantis merulinus) is a species of bird belonging to the genus Cacomantis in the cuckoo family Cuculidae. It is native to Asia, from India and China to Indonesia.

Distribution and subspecies
There are four subspecies.

• The nominate form C. m. merulinus is found in the Philippines where it is common on many of the larger islands

• C. m. querulus is the most widespread form, occurring in north-east India, Bangladesh, southern China, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. It is a summer visitor to most of its Chinese range, migrating south for the winter.

• C. m. threnodes is found in the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo

• C. m. lanceolatus occurs in Java, Bali and Sulawesi.

The grey-bellied cuckoo (C. passerinus) was formerly classified as a subspecies of the Plaintive Cuckoo but is now often treated as a separate species.

Range map from www.oiseaux.net - Ornithological Portal Oiseaux.net

www.oiseaux.net is one of those MUST visit pages if you're in to bird watching. You can find just about everything there

Description
It is a fairly small cuckoo, 21-23.5 centimetres long. The adult male is grey-brown above and orange below with a grey head, throat and upper breast.

There are white tips to the tail feathers. The legs and feet are yellow, the eye is red and the bill is black above and yellow below.

The adult female is sometimes similar to the male but often occurs in a "hepatic" morph. This form is reddish-brown above with dark bars.

The underparts are paler with fainter barring. There is a pale stripe over the eye and the tail has dark bars along its whole length.

Juvenile birds are similar to hepatic females but are paler and have dark streaks rather than bars on the crown and throat.

The male has several plaintive whistling calls. These include an ascending series of three-note phrases and a series of 11 or 12 descending notes.

Listen to the Plaintive Cuckoo

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder. High Pass Filter applied with Audacity

I have never seen so many Plaintive Cuckoo before. I use to hear them all over Bangkok. And I get to see them in the trees some times. Maybe because of breeding or something, but now they were perching on handrails, sticks etc. Something I never seen before.

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder. High Pass Filter applied with Audacity

I have never seen so many Plaintive Cuckoo before. I use to hear them all over Bangkok. And I get to see them in the trees some times. Maybe because of breeding or something, but now they were perching on handrails, sticks etc. Something I never seen before.

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder. High Pass Filter applied with Audacity

Recorded outside the Blue-winged Pitta hide at Baan Maka Nature Lodge

Plaintive

adjective sounding sad and mournful: a plaintive cry .

Well, I don't know, does the Cuckoo sound sad?

Ecology
The Plaintive Cuckoo inhabits forest edge, open woodland, scrub, grassland, farmland, parks and gardens. It feeds on invertebrates. It is normally solitary and is often difficult to see.

It is a brood parasite, laying its eggs in the nests of cisticolas, prinias and tailorbirds. The eggs are similar to those of the host species but are larger. Small birds often mob the cuckoo to drive it away from their nests.

Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2.
International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

www.birdforum.net

Sighted: (Date of first photo that I could use) 29 February 2016
Location: Suan Phutthamonthon (Phutthamonthon Park)

Visit Nick Upton at www.thaibirding.com for HOT birding tips for sites around Bangkok and Thailand. There are reviews of the birding sites with maps and information.

And if you like Nick Upton's web page you will also like www.norththailandbirding.com I have used this page together with Nick Upton's page when planning my birding tours. Excellent reviews and information about the birding sites.

I also got the Thai names of the birds from www.norththailandbirding.com. There is a bird check list with all the names in English and Thai. And of course also the Scientific Name. Down load the birdlist in Microsoft Excel format at www.norththailandbirding.com Or down load the Excel sheet by clicking HERE

And my new aid, maybe, and I say maybe the best aid. I brought my mobile phone as my SIM card have stopped working and I tried to get it to work again so I can use the internet. Thus I had my phone in my pocket on my first game drive in Jim Corbett National Park.

We saw a bird and I asked my Guide and the driver if they had a pen and a paper as I had forgot my pen and paper in my room. I remembered my LG phone and I recorded the name. And thus I will always bring my phone. Writing the name in the car and I have found more than once that it can be hard to read what I had wrote when I'm back in my room.

So now I always have my mobile in my pocket and it has been a great help. And from November 2018 I use eBird. Bird watching in U.A.E and Oman and my guide in Dubai recommended eBird and I have used the app since then and I note every bird I can identify in my eBird app.

Plaintive Cuckoo / นกอีวาบตั๊กแตน - 29 February 2016 - Suan Phutthamonthon (Phutthamonthon Park)

Plaintive Cuckoo / นกอีวาบตั๊กแตน - 14 March 2016 - Chaloem Kanchanaphisek Park, Bangkok

Plaintive Cuckoo / นกอีวาบตั๊กแตน - 15 June 2019 - Bang Pu, Bangkok

Female Plaintive Cuckoo / นกอีวาบตั๊กแตน - 7 May 2020 - Queen Sirikit Park, Bangkok

Male Plaintive Cuckoo / นกอีวาบตั๊กแตน - 7 May 2020 - Queen Sirikit Park, Bangkok

Male Plaintive Cuckoo / นกอีวาบตั๊กแตน - 26 July 2020
eBird hotspot: Mahidol University [Salaya Campus] & Sireeruckhachart Botanical Garden, Bangkok

Female Plaintive Cuckoo / นกอีวาบตั๊กแตน - 20 June 2023
eBird hotspot: Rama IX Park (Suan Luang Rama IX), Bangkok

PLEASE! If I have made any mistakes identifying any bird, PLEASE let me know on my guestbook

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