CUCKOOS OF EASTERN HIMALAYAS(CONTINUED...)

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Jun 7, 2000

7.BAYBAND CUCKOO: SIZE: myna, slender. Length 24cm(9.5 in) FIELD CHARACTERS: A small slim cuckoo. Above, bright rufous or bay, conspicuously cross-barred with brown. Tail largely rufous, the feathers tipped white and subtipped black. Below (including sides of head and neck) whitish, with fine wavy brown cross-bars. Sexes are alike. Easily confused with hepatic female of plaintive cuckoo, but calls usually diagnostic. STATUS, HABITAT, ETC. Resident, nomadic or seasonal migrant? Uncertainty due to its silence in non-breeding season and possibility of being overlooked then. Duars and foothills occasionally as high up as 2400m: lightly wooded and cultivated country as well as heavy forest, in moist-deciduous and evergreen biotope. Arboreal; insectivorous. Keeps singly to bare tops when calling. Flight, general habits, and food as of the family. Brood-parasitic on bulbuls and small babblers. Call: a loud, pleasant 4-noted whistle weeti-teeti......repeated with monotonous persistency, tail depressed, wings droped at sides; somewhat reminiscent of crossword-puzzle call of Indian Cuckoo. Songs, a sweet clear whistling tee titee-teeti titee-teeti...

8.EMARALD CUCKOO: SIZE: Sparrow; length 18 cm (7 in). FEILD CHARACTERS: A diminutive resplendent cuckoo. Male. Above, brilliant glossy bronze-green. White patch on wing conspicuous in flight. Tail-feathers tipped white, the outermost pair with three white bars. Blow, chin, throat and upper breast like back; rest white, barred with metallic bronze-green. Under tail-coverts metallic green barred with white. Female. Above, glistening emerald green with golden rufous crown and nape. Tail barred chestnut and black, tipped with white. Below, white, tinged with rufous on throat and flanks; barred with bronze-brown narrowly on throat, broadly on belly. STATUS, HABITAT, ETC. Status uncertain. Possibly resident but subject to nomadism and/or seasonal migrant like other cuckoos. Duars and foothills, normally up to 1000 m. Keeps singly or in small parties of 3 or 4 to the foliage canopy in secondary evergreen jungle; its presence after winged insects. Brood-parasitic on sunbirds and spiderhunters. Food: caterpillars, bugs and other insects, and spiders. Call: a clear high pitched whistle trill or rattle of 3-6 notes rapidly uttered, reminiscent of lorikeet.

9.DRONGO-CUCKOO: SIZE: myna; slimmer, with long (forked) tail. Length 25 cm (10 in). FIELD CHARACTERS: Glossy metallic black. General appearance deceptively like black Drongo, but under tail-coverts and base of outermost recrices nearly always barred with white. Sexes alike. Calls diagnostic. STATUS, HABITAT, ETC. Resident. Also nomadic and/or locally migratory. Movements poorly have known owing to absence of calling during non-breeding season. Duars and foothills up to 2000 m, in well-wooded country. Arboreal. Keeps singly to foliage canopy of trees, mounting to exposed top branches for calling. Flight cuckoo-like, noticeably different from drongo's. Sometimes catches winged insects by springing up into air like drongo. Brood-parasitic reportedly on drongos, minivets, etc., but biology little known. Food: caterpillars, grasshoppers, wild figs, etc. Call: song quite distinctive-a run of 5 or 6 evenly spaced whistles pip-pip-pip-pip-pip-pip( as if the bird is counting 1-2-3-4-5-6 or practicing the musical scale) rising in pitch with each successive pip and breaking off abruptly. Reiterated monotonously after a few seconds.

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