| Grey-bellied cuckoo | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Male from Kerala, India | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Cuculiformes |
| Family: | Cuculidae |
| Genus: | Cacomantis |
| Species: | C. passerinus |
| Binomial name | |
| Cacomantis passerinus (Vahl, 1797) | |
The grey-bellied cuckoo or the Indian plaintive cuckoo (Cacomantis passerinus) is a cuckoo with widespread occurrence throughout Asia.
The grey-bellied cuckoo is one of the smaller cuckoos, at a total length of about 23 cm. Adults are mainly grey with a white lower belly and undertail. There is a white patch on the wings. Some females are dark-barred reddish brown above with an unbarred tail and have strongly dark-barred whitish underparts. The juvenile resembles the female but is of a duller grey. [2]
The grey-bellied cuckoo breeds in tropical southern Asia from India and Sri Lanka to south China and Indonesia. It has been reported from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. [1] It is a short-distance migrant, since birds at more northerly latitudes and on higher ground are summer visitors, leaving for warmer areas in winter. The species prefers light woodland and cultivated areas. [2]
The grey-bellied cuckoo is a brood parasite and uses warblers as hosts. It lays a single egg. Its diet consists of a variety of insects and caterpillars. This is a noisy species, with a persistent and loud pee-pip-pee-pee call, with its tail depressed. [2]
The orange-headed thrush is a bird in the thrush family.
The rusty-spotted cat is one of the cat family's smallest members, of which historical records are known only from India and Sri Lanka. In 2012, it was also recorded in the western Terai of Nepal. Since 2016, the global wild population is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List as it is fragmented and affected by loss and destruction of its prime habitat, deciduous forests.
The golden-fronted leafbird is a species of leafbird. It is found from the Indian subcontinent and south-western China, to south-east Asia and Sumatra.
The black bittern is a bittern of Old World origin, breeding in tropical Asia from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka east to China, Indonesia, and Australia. It is mainly resident, but some northern birds migrate short distances.
The rufous-bellied eagle or rufous-bellied hawk-eagle is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae that is found in the forested regions of tropical Asia. Relatively small for eagles and contrastingly patterned like a falcon, this species was earlier placed in the genus Hieraaetus and sometimes also in the genus Aquila but thought to be distinctive enough to belong to a separate genus.
The Malabar pied hornbill, also known as lesser pied hornbill, is a bird in the hornbill family, a family of tropical near-passerine birds found in the Old World.
The lesser yellownape is a type of woodpecker which is a widespread and often common breeder in tropical and sub-tropical Asia, primarily the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It ranges from India, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka eastwards to Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. Much of the scientific knowledge gathered about this species is sourced from formal studies in various parts of India.
The Sri Lanka wood pigeon is a pigeon which is an endemic resident breeding bird in the mountains of Sri Lanka.
The small minivet is a small passerine bird. This minivet is found in tropical southern Asia from the Indian subcontinent east to Indonesia.
The spot-bellied eagle-owl, also known as the forest eagle-owl is a large bird of prey with a formidable appearance. It is a forest-inhabiting species found in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. This species is considered part of a superspecies with the barred eagle-owl, which looks quite similar but is allopatric in distribution.
The banded bay cuckoo or bay-banded cuckoo is a species of small cuckoo found in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Like others in the genus they have a round nostril. They are usually founded in well wooded areas mainly in the lower hills. Males sing from exposed branches during the breeding season, which can vary with region. They are distinctive both in their calls as well as plumage with a white eyebrowed appearance and the rufous upperparts with regular dark bands and the whitish underside with fine striations.
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 and like many other cuckoos these are brood parasites, laying their eggs in 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.
The black-headed cuckooshrike is a species of cuckooshrike found in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia.
The Central Highlands of India are a biogeographic region in India formed by the disjunct ranges of the Satpura and Vindhya Hills. It is given the term 6A within the Deccan zone in the Rodgers and Panwar (1988) classification. The zone adjoins 6D, the Central Plateau and 4B, the Gujarat Rajputana and extends across the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The total area is approximately 250,000 km2 and there are 27 Protected Areas covering 4.9% of the area. There are also six Project Tiger Reserves in the region.
The plaintive cuckoo is a species of bird belonging to the genus Cacomantis in the cuckoo family Cuculidae. It is native to Asia, from India, Nepal and China to Indonesia.
Cacomantis is a genus of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. The genus name is derived from the Greek kakos meaning evil or ill-boding and mantis for prophet and is derived from their association with "rains" being supposed to be predicted as also ill fortune and bad weather. Most of them have a round nostril and are mainly in brown and gray colours. The tails are graduated and barred. The bars are transverse in sonneratii and oblique in all others.
The black-backed forktail, occasionally referred to as the black-throated forktail, is a forktail species in the family Muscicapidae. The species was described in 1836, from a specimen collected in Nepal. It is a medium-sized forktail, weighing between 25 and 29 grams, with a length of 20.5 to 23 centimetres. The species has a broad white stripe across its forehead. The crown, face, and mantle are black, while the bird's underparts are white, sharply divided from the black above. The wings are largely black with a broad white stripe across the greater coverts. The tail of the species, similar to that of other forktails, is long, graduated, and deeply forked. The tail is black with a white tip and three white bands created by shorter tail feathers. The beak of the bird is black, while the feet and legs are light pink, and the iris is brown. The species is monomorphic.
The Naga wren-babbler or long-tailed wren-babbler is a bird species in the family Timaliidae. In India it is found in Nagaland and Manipur.
