Brush Cuckoo (Cacomantis variolosus)

About the Brush Cuckoo
The Sahul brush cuckoo (Cacomantis variolosus), formerly known as the brush cuckoo, is a member of the cuckoo family. It is native to Malesia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and northern and eastern Australia. It is a grey-brown bird with a buff breast. Its call is a familiar sound of the Australian and Indonesian bush. Eight subspecies are recognised: C. v. major Salvadori, 1880 – north Moluccas (Morotai to Obi Islands) C. v. tymbonomus (Müller, S, 1843) – Rote Island, Timor and Wetar (east Lesser Sunda Islands) C. v. infaustus Cabanis & Heine, 1863 – New Guinea and most satellite islands C. v. obscuratus Stresemann & Paludan, 1932 – Numfor (Geelvink Bay islands, northwest New Guinea) C. v. variolosus (Vigors & Horsfield, 1827) – northeast Western Australia to south Victoria (north, east Australia)
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 155 recordings for this species: 32 CC BY-NC-ND · 26 CC BY-NC-SA. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.
As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.
Listed as recorded in Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Related species you can hear
- Banded Bay CuckooCacomantis sonneratiirecording
- Fan-tailed CuckooCacomantis flabelliformisrecording
- Grey-bellied CuckooCacomantis passerinusrecording
- Plaintive CuckooCacomantis merulinusrecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.