Hodgson's Hawk-Cuckoo (Hierococcyx nisicolor)
About the Hodgson's Hawk-Cuckoo
Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx nisicolor), also known as the whistling hawk-cuckoo, is a species of cuckoo found in north-eastern India, Myanmar, southern China and southeast Asia. Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo is a brood parasite. The chick evicts bona fide residents of the parasitized nest, thus becoming the sole occupant. Under normal circumstances, this would reduce the provisioning rate as the foster parents see only one gape. To counteract this, the Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo displays gape-coloured patches of skin under its wing to simulate additional gapes; the strategy appears to increase the provisioning rate. This is in contrast to other species of cuckoo (such as the common cuckoo) which increase the rapidity of high pitched hunger calls to increase the provisioning rate.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 27 recordings for this species: 1 CC BY-NC-ND. 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 Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Related species you can hear
- Common Hawk-CuckooHierococcyx variusrecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.