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Cuckoos of Eastern Himalayas(Cont...)

© Mazhar Ali

4.CUCKOO SIZE: Pigeon; slenderer, with proportionately large tail. Overall length 35cm(14 in). FIELD CHARACTERS: Above, dark Grey with a brownish tinge. Below, pale ashy and white cross-barred with widely spaced black bands. Readily distinguished by broad black subterminal band on tail; conclusively by the unmistakable call. Sexes are alike.

STATUS, HABITAT, ETC. Summer visitor to the duars and hills normally up to 2300m, occasionally to 3500m: openly wooded country. Very noisy between April and August, silent in other months when liable to be overlooked. Mainly arboreal, keeping singly to foliage canopy, flying about hawk-like above the treetops. Particularly obstreperous in early morning and at dusk-often calling throughout moonlit nights. Also calls on the wing in courtship chase. Brood-parasitic mainly on drongos. Food; caterpillars and other insects sometimes picked off the ground while hopping awkwardly. Call: distinctive and diagnostic, a loud flutty 4-syllabified as Crossword-puzzle, Orange-pekoe, etc. -repeated intermittently in monotonous runs of several minutes, for hours on end.

5. HIMALAYAN CUCKOO. SIZE. Pigeon-; slender. Length 30 cm(12 in). FIELD CHARACTERS. Indistinguishable from the common Cuckoo, except by its distinctive 4-noted call. Females sometimes also hepatic.

STATUS, HABITAT, ETC; Resident or summer visitor? Uncertainty due to its being silent between about August and March when likely to be overlooked or confused with common Cuckoo. Affects hilly wooded country and habits and food as in common cuckoo. Call; distinctive and entirely diagnostic-a loud, far-carrying OOP-poop-poop-poop (accent on initial OOP) preceded by a soft undertone up, only audible at close range. Easily confused with call of hoopoe, but is characteristically 4-noted against the hoopoe's three. Less obstreperous than both Indian Cuckoo and common Cuckoo.

6. SMALL CUCKOO SIZE: Myna; with longer tail. Length 25 cm (10 in). FIELD CHARACTERS; A smaller edition of the common Cuckoo. Above: Grey. Below: buffy white, cross-barred with black. Sexes: nearly alike, female also has a hepatic phase. Most reliably identified by the husky call.

STATUS, HABITAT, ETC. Summer visitor and/or resident? locally common in well-wooded country. Breeds at between 1500 and 3200m, possibly higher. Brood-parasitic on small ground-nesting passerines such as leaf warblers (phylloscopus), wren-babblers (pnoepyga) and shortenings (brachyteryx). Mostly silent between August and April, thus liable to be overlooked. Habits and food typical of the family. Very noisy in breeding season (May-July), calling persistently throughout the day, particularly if cloudy overcast, and at night; from a perch as well as on the wing. Call: a curious husky chattering of 5 or 6 unmusical notes, the first half rising in scale the second falling. Well-syllabified as...That's your choky pepper...choky pepper (accent on first choky) quickly repeated.

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