Sighting of the rare singing cuckoo
I was exploring the Hazarikhil Wildlife Sanctuary in search of some rare and elusive birds, as part of a six-member team with BirdingBD Tours. The date was 27 March this year and it was 6 am. We waited quietly for about an hour deep in the forest, hoping to see the small, chicken-like bird called the white-throated partridge. It was calling somewhere nearby, but eventually it did not appear. We also heard the call of a red-headed trogon, but that too did not show up. Afterwards, we went to the guesthouse for breakfast. After breakfast, we set off toward the stream.
Passage migrant birds are birds that stop in a third country for a short rest during some stage of their migration between two other countries. Examples include the brown shrike, forest wagtail, and red-footed falcon
The stream here is quite something! In some places, it just about wets your feet, in others it reaches your knees, and at one point we even had to wade through waist-deep water. Anyway, although yesterday we spotted several small birds at the beginning of the stream, including the black-throated prinia, today we didn’t see any sign of them.
After walking some distance, as soon as we reached a lemon orchard, Jaber Ansari of BirdingBD pointed toward a tree, and we spotted a beautiful bird, dark gray and whitish, with black-and-white markings on its chest, belly, and tail. The bird kept calling continuously. I quickly took several photos of it and also recorded a video.
Fifteen years ago, on 12 September 2011, I first saw a bird of the same species sitting on an electric wire at my workplace, the Agricultural University campus in Gazipur. Luck was on my side, as I had my camera with me. However, after just two clicks, the bird flew away and never returned. So, after all these years, finding the bird again at Hazarikhil allowed me to take photos of it to my heart’s content.
The bird seen at Hazarikhil Wildlife Sanctuary and on the Agricultural University campus in Gazipur is a rare passage migrant in this country. It is the singing cuckoo. Passage migrant birds are birds that stop in a third country for a short rest during some stage of their migration between two other countries. Examples include the brown shrike, forest wagtail, and red-footed falcon. They typically stop in this country between September and October, on their way to other destinations, and again between February and March when returning to their original habitat.
The singing cuckoo’s English name is the common or Eurasian cuckoo. It belongs to the cuckoo family (Cuculidae), and its scientific name is Cuculus canorus. They are primarily resident in Europe, China, the Himalayas and Japan, and migrate in winter to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.
An adult singing cuckoo measures 33–36 cm in length and weighs 54–60 grams. At a glance, it appears gray in color. There are differences in plumage between males and females. The male has a gray upper body and a white underside. The chin, throat, and chest are pale ash-colored. The belly, flanks, undertail, and under-tail coverts have narrow black bars. The tail is dark brownish with a white tip.
Females occur in two types of colour. In the first type, except for a slight reddish tinge on the lower breast, the plumage is similar to the male. In the second type, the back and tail are reddish-brown with dark brown barring, while the underside is white with dark bars. In both sexes, the eyes, legs, feet, and toes are yellow, and the claws are grayish-brown. The young bird is slate-gray with a white patch on the back of the neck, and their feathers also have white edging.
These birds are occasionally seen in the Sylhet, Chattogram, Khulna, and Dhaka divisions. They usually move about solitarily in mixed evergreen forests, moist deciduous forests, and tree-filled areas. These diurnal birds mainly feed on caterpillars and soft-bodied insects. The male calls “cuck-koo—cuck-koo—,” while the female calls “whee-wheew-whee—.”
Their breeding season is from March to September. They are brood-parasitic birds. Therefore, during breeding, in their main habitats, such as Siberia and the Himalayas, they lay eggs in the nests of smaller birds like wagtails, prinias, and shrikes. A female lays at least 12 eggs per year, placing one egg in each host’s nest. The eggs closely resemble those of the host species. Their eggs hatch earlier (in about 12.5 days) than the host’s eggs. The chicks grow several times larger than their foster parents within 22–23 days. Their lifespan is approximately seven years.
* ANM Aminur Rahman is a bird, wildlife breeding and veterinary specialist