Indian hawk cuckoo

The Indian Hawk Cuckoo is a medium-sized bird the size of a pigeon (about 34 cm). The plumage is ash gray from above; the whitish chest and belly are streaked with brown transverse striation. Tail with wide dark stripes. Male and female are similar. Both sexes have a characteristic yellow ring around the eye.

In semi-adult birds, their breasts are streaked with dark marks, which makes them similar to young Turkestan tuviks. In the lower part of the chest and on the stomach, the marks become larger, turning into brown brackets ^[3] . If you see the cuckoo in passing, it can easily be mistaken for a hawk. In flight, they interspersed with flapping wings and hovering, which resembles the manner of flying small hawks (especially the Turkestan tuvik), and when taking off and landing on the side they flap their tail from side to side. Many small birds and squirrels at the sight of an Indian hawk cuckoo emit alarms as when a hawk appears. Females and males are similar, but males are usually larger ^[4] .

They can be confused with a large hawk cuckoo, which, however, has dark stripes on the throat and chest. Young Indian hawk cuckoos have a light chin, and young large hawks have a black chin ^[5] .

During the summer months, before the monsoons, males are easy to spot by their repeated song, but it can be hard to see. The song consists of a loud three-note scream repeated 5 or 6 times, which, upon reaching the crescendo, suddenly breaks off. It is heard throughout the day and often during moonlit nights ^[7] . The call of the females is a series of crackling sounds ^[4] . Indian hawk cuckoos feed mainly on insects, but their food specialization is that they can process hairy caterpillars, which are inedible for most insectivorous birds. The intestinal tract of caterpillars often contains toxins and, like other cuckoos, they squeeze the intestinal tract out of the caterpillar, pressing and rubbing the caterpillar on a branch before swallowing it. Poisonous hairs, swallowed together with the caterpillar, are separated in the stomach and burp in the form of small ridges ^[5] .

The typical location for this species is Trankebar in Tamil Nadu . In the old days, there was a Danish settlement, from which Martin Hendriksen Val received the first model collection specimen, and described this species in 1797 ^[8] . Indian hawk cuckoo often together with other close relatives include the Hierococcyx hawk cuckoo, but sometimes, as in this case, it enters the wider genus Cuculus ^[3] . Two subspecies are known in this species, nominative C. varius varius of India and C. v. ciceliae in the hilly areas of Sri Lanka ^[9] . Indian population is more pale colored than C. v. ciceliae ^[3] .

The Indian hawk cuckoo lives in most of the Indian subcontinent, in western Pakistan , from the foothills of the Himalayas east to Nepal , Bhutan and Bangladesh and south to Sri Lanka . Some birds from the Indian population winter in Sri Lanka. The ciceliae subspecies lives settled in the hilly part of central Sri Lanka. This species, as a rule, leads a sedentary lifestyle, but when living in the mountains and in arid areas it makes local migrations. In the Himalayas, the Indian hawk cuckoo is observed mainly at low altitudes (usually below 1000 m above sea level); in higher altitudes, it is usually replaced by a large hawk cuckoo ^[4] .

It is a woody species and they rarely descend to the ground. Habitats of this species include gardens, groves, deciduous and semi-evergreen forests ^[4] .

Like all representatives of the genus Cuculus , this species is a nesting parasite, preferring thimelia mainly to the genus Turdoides (perhaps this is its main host ^[3] ), and according to some reports they lay eggs in nests on shrubs of the genus Garrulax ^{[11 ]} .

It breeds from March to June, coinciding in terms with some thimelias from the genus Turdoides . In each nest found, she lays only one blue egg, like that of the owner. A chick usually throws the eggs of the host and then foster parents feed him until he becomes independent, that is, almost a month ^[5] . According to the observations of Thomas Gerdon, the cuckoo does not always succeed in throwing the eggs or nestlings of the host, and sometimes young cuckoos can be seen together with thimelas ^[12] . When moving along with a flock of thimelia, the cuckoo emits a chattering urge of Ki-Ki , asking for food, and the adoptive parents in the group continue to feed him ^[4] . The dominant host species in India is Turdoides striatus and Turdoides affinis ^[13] . This species also parasitizes on the great thrush thimelia Turdoides malcolmi ^{[7] [14]} . In Sri Lanka, its owner is Turdoides striatus ^[15] .

Parasitic helminths from the genus Oxyspirura sometimes affect the eye sockets of this species ^[16] .

The cry of this bird in English is quite accurately conveyed as a brain-fever ^[17] . Other interpretations of this bird's cry include peea kahan in Hindi (“where is my love”) or chokh gelo (in Bengali , “my eyes are gone”) and paos ala ( marathi , “it is raining”).

The cry “Pee kahan” or “Papeeha” more accurately betrays the piercing cry “pi-piiah” of a large hawk cuckoo ( Hierococcyx sparverioides ), which replaces the Indian hawk cuckoo in the forests on the slopes of the Himalayas and their foothills ^[5] .

In Assamese in Northeast India, this cuckoo is called Keteki , and its cry transliterates as “ Moi Keteki, ” which translates as “my name is Keteki.”

The cry of the Indian hawk cuckoo can be heard throughout the day, from the early morning even before dawn and often during moonlit nights ^[7] . The novel of the Indian writer Allan Seely is named after this bird ^[18] .

• Sounds of the Indian Hawk Cuckoo on xeno-canto.org
• Whistler, H. The Common Hawk-Cuckoo Hierococcyx varius in the Punjab. (English) // Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society : journal. - Bombay Natural History Society , 1918. - Vol. 26 , no. 1 . - P. 287 .
• Osmaston, AE Eggs of the Large Hawk-Cuckoo Hierococcyx sparverioides . (English) // Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society : journal. - Bombay Natural History Society , 1912. - Vol. 21 , no. 4 . - P. 1330-1331 .
• Umar, M. On the onset of brain-fever. (English) // Newsletter for Birdwatchers . - 1977. - Vol. 17 , no. 2 . - P. 9 .
• Himmatsinhji, MK The Common Hawk-Cuckoo, Cuculus varius Vahl in Kutch. (English) // Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society : journal. - Bombay Natural History Society 1980. - Vol. 77 , no. 2 . - P. 329 .
• Waite, HW The Common Hawk-Cuckoo ( Cuculus varius varius Vahl) in the Punjab. (English) // Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society : journal. - Bombay Natural History Society , 1963. - Vol. 60 , no. 1 . - P. 260 .
• Gay, Thomas. Onset of 'brain-fever' (Eng.) // Newsletter for Birdwatchers . - 1976. - Vol. 16 , no. 3 . - P. 15 .
• Mohan, D. Onset of brainfever (Eng.) // Newsletter for Birdwatchers . - 1976. - Vol. 16 , no. 5 . - P. 11 .
• Ramamoorthi, MS Onset of Brainfever (English) // Newsletter for Birdwatchers . - 1976. - Vol. 16 , no. 5 . - P. 9-11 .
• Gay, T. First calls of the Common Hawk Cuckoo (English) // Newsletter for Birdwatchers . - 1988. - Vol. 28 , no. 3-4 . - P. 16 .
• Internet bird collection