View allAll Photos Tagged commonhawkcuckoo
The busy background just seemed to stay whichever way i tried to compose. Half an hour later as my arms ached aiming high over the tree and my beautiful subject showed no sign of moving to a better perch, i decided to give up and move on with whatever i had managed.
I have always resisted from adding frames to my bird images, but an increasing realization on size, distance and scope for crop with a 300mm +1.4TC have got me on a new track these days!!!!
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-Size-About that of pigeon, slender with long tail,deceptively like Shikra Hawk.
-Habitat - Decidous and semi evergreen low country
-Sexes-Alike
-Apperance:
~Ashy grey above,white below;suffused with rufous and ashy on breast and barred with brownish on abdomen and flanks.
~Mostly silent in winter months;begins calling in March, increasing as hot weather advances.Its
brain -fever screams can be heard all through the day and even into moonlit nights.
-Nesting: Leaves eggs in the care of foster parents like Jungle Babbler.
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Source: Ali,S(1999)."Birds of Kerala",3rd ed.Kerala Forests and WIldlife Department, Thiruvananthapuram.
Common Hawk-Cuckoo (Hierococcyx varius varius), Munnar Hill Station, Kerala, India
The Common Hawk-Cuckoo (Hierococcyx varius), popularly known as the Brainfever bird, is a medium-sized cuckoo resident in the Indian Subcontinent. It bears a close resemblance to the Shikra, a sparrow hawk, even in its style of flying and landing on a perch. The resemblance to hawks gives this group the generic name of hawk-cuckoo and like many other cuckoos these are brood parasites, laying their eggs in nests of babblers. During their breeding season in summer males produce loud, repetitive three note calls that are well-rendered as brain-fever, the second note being longer and higher pitched. These notes rise to a crescendo before ending abruptly and repeat after a few minutes; the calling may go on through the day, well after dusk and before dawn.
Source: Wikipedia
Bangaloore, India
Oct 2021
A lucky low light handheld shot late in the evening with overcast sky. The camera performed well even at ISO 12800.
PS Disclaimer - Noise Reduction done with Topaz.
More About the Bird - As per Wiki :-
The Common Hawk-Cuckoo(Hierococcyx varius), popularly known as the brainfever bird, is a medium-sized cuckoo resident in the Indian subcontinent about the size of a pigeon. It bears a close resemblance to the Shikra (a predatory bird), even in its style of flying and landing on a perch. The resemblance to hawks gives this group the generic name of hawk-cuckoo and like many other cuckoos these are brood parasites, laying their eggs in nests of babblers. During their breeding season in summer males produce loud, repetitive three note calls that are well-rendered as brain-fever, the second note being longer and higher pitched. These notes rise to a crescendo before ending abruptly and repeat after a few minutes; the calling may go on through the day, well after dusk and before dawn.
The plumage is ashy grey above; whitish below, cross-barred with brown. The tail is broadly barred. The sexes are alike. They have a distinctive yellow eye ring. Subadults have the breast streaked, similar to the immature shikra, and there are large brown chevron marks on the belly. At first glance they can be mistaken for a hawk. When flying they use a flap and glide style that resembles that of sparrowhawks (especially the shikra) and flying upwards and landing on a perch they shake their tails from side to side. Many small birds and squirrels raise the alarm just as they would in the presence of a hawk. The sexes are alike but males tend to be larger.
Common hawk-cuckoo
The common hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx varius), popularly known as the brainfever bird, is a medium-sized cuckoo resident in the Indian subcontinent. It bears a close resemblance to the Shikra, even in its style of flying and landing on a perch. The resemblance to hawks gives this group the generic name of hawk-cuckoo and like many other cuckoos these are brood parasites, laying their eggs in nests of babblers. During their breeding season in summer males produce loud, repetitive three note calls that are well-rendered as brain-fever, the second note being longer and higher pitched. These notes rise to a crescendo before ending abruptly and repeat after a few minutes; the calling may go on through the day, well after dusk and before dawn.
The common hawk-cuckoo is a medium- to large-sized cuckoo, about the size of a pigeon (ca. 34 cm). The plumage is ashy grey above; whitish below, cross-barred with brown. The tail is broadly barred. The sexes are alike. They have a distinctive yellow eye ring. Subadults have the breast streaked, similar to the immature shikra, and there are large brown chevron marks on the belly. At first glance they can be mistaken for a hawk. When flying they use a flap and glide style that resembles that of sparrowhawks (especially the shikra) and flying upwards and landing on a perch they shake their tails from side to side. Many small birds and squirrels raise the alarm just as they would in the presence of a hawk. The sexes are alike but males tend to be larger.
They can be confused with the large hawk-cuckoo, which, however, has dark streaks on the throat and breast. Young birds have a pale chin but young large hawk-cuckoos have a black chin.
During summer months, before the monsoons, the males are easily detected by their repeated calls but can be difficult to spot. The call is a loud screaming three-note call, repeated 5 or 6 times, rising in crescendo and ending abruptly. It is heard throughout the day and frequently during moonlit nights. The calls of females are a series of grating notes. Common hawk-cuckoos feed mainly on insects and are specialised feeders that can handle hairy caterpillars. Caterpillar guts often contain toxins and like many cuckoos they remove the guts by pressing the caterpillar and rubbing it on a branch before swallowing it. The hairs are swallowed with the caterpillar and are separated in the stomach and regurgitated as a pellet.
The type locality of the species is Tranquebar in Tamil Nadu, once a Danish settlement and from where a specimen reached Martin Hendriksen Vahl who described the species in 1797. This species is placed under the genus Hierococcyx, which includes other hawk-cuckoos, but is sometimes included in the genus Cuculus. There are two subspecies, the nominate from India and ciceliae of the hill regions of Sri Lanka. The Indian population has paler plumage than ciceliae.
The common hawk-cuckoo occurs in most of the Indian subcontinent, from Pakistan in the west, across the Himalayas foothills, east to Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh and south into Sri Lanka. Some birds of the Indian population winter in Sri Lanka. In the hills of central Sri Lanka, ciceliae is a resident. It is generally resident but where occurring at high altitudes and in arid areas is locally migratory. It is found in the lower elevations (mostly below 1000m) of the Himalayas but in the higher areas, the large hawk-cuckoo tends to be more common.
The species is arboreal and rarely descends to the ground. Its habitat includes garden land, groves of tree, deciduous and semi-evergreen forests.
Like many other cuckoos, this species is a brood parasite, preferring babblers mainly in the genus Turdoides (possibly the only host) and also reportedly on laughing-thrushes of the genus Garrulax.
Its breeding season is March to June, coinciding with that of some of the Turdoides babblers. A single egg is laid in each nest, blue, like that of the host. The hatchling usually evicts the eggs of its host and is reared to maturity by foster parents, following them for nearly a month. T C Jerdon noted that it may not always evict the host and that young birds may be seen along with young babblers. When moving with a flock of babblers the chick makes a grating kee-kee call to beg for food and the foster parents within the group may feed it. The predominant host species in India are Turdoides striatus and Turdoides affinis. Hawk-cuckoos also parasitise the large grey babbler Turdoides malcolmi. In Sri Lanka, their host is Turdoides striatus.
Parasitic eye-worms in the genus Oxyspirura have been found in the orbital cavity of the species.
The call of this bird has been popularly transcribed as brain-fever in English (in some old books, this name is also incorrectly used for the Asian koel). Frank Finn noted that [H]is note, however, fully entitles him to his ordinary designation, whether from its "damnable iteration" or from its remarkable resemblance to the word "brain-fever" repeated in a piercing voice running up the scale. Other interpretations of the bird call include peea kahan in Hindi ("where's my love") or chokh gelo (in Bengali, "my eyes are gone") and paos ala (Marathi, "the rains are coming").
The call "Pee kahan" or "Papeeha" is more accurately represented by the shrill screaming "pi-peeah" of the large hawk-cuckoo Hierococcyx sparverioides, which replaces the brainfever bird along the Himalayas and its foothills.
The bird is called Keteki in the Assamese language of North-East India, and its call transliterated as "Moi Keteki" which translates to My name is Keteki.
The brainfever bird's call may be heard all through the day, starting early before dawn and frequently during moonlit nights. A novel by the Indian author Allan Sealy is named after this bird.
Amazing bird, spent an hour watching this.Never worried by my presence, it was jumping branch to branch, catching worms.
Common Hawk Cuckoo - Hierococcyx varius - Индийская ястребиная кукушка
Nepal, Langtang NP, Bamboo lodge, 04/18/2019
Common Hawk-Cuckoo, popularly known as brainfever bird. Passerine/Perching birds. Has close resemblance to Shikra. he resemblance to hawks gives this group the generic name of hawk-cuckoo and like many other cuckoos these are brood parasites, laying their eggs in nests of babblers. The sexes are alike. They have a distinctive yellow eye ring. Subadults have the breast streaked, similar to the immature shikra, and there are large brown chevron marks on the belly.
The Common Hawk-Cuckoo is endemic to the Indian Subcontinent. Like other Hawk-Cuckoos
it bears a striking resemblance to Accipiters like the Shikra and other Sparrowhawks.
(Also see the flight pic below!)
Its debated if this is evolved mimicry (and if so what advantage does it confer) or convergent
evolution. The species is a brood parasite, parasitizing the nests of Turdoides babblers
like this Jungle Babbler. Usually a shy species, it tends to perch in the open more often
during the monsoons, like this morning when I saw at least three different birds perched on roadside
wires. Countryside near Sohna, Haryana, Aug 4, 2009.
Common Hawk-Cuckoo
The common hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx varius), popularly known as the brainfever bird, is a medium-sized cuckoo resident in the Indian subcontinent. It bears a close resemblance to the Shikra, even in its style of flying and landing on a perch. The resemblance to hawks gives this group the generic name of hawk-cuckoo and like many other cuckoos these are brood parasites, laying their eggs in nests of babblers. During their breeding season in summer males produce loud, repetitive three note calls that are well-rendered as brain-fever, the second note being longer and higher pitched. These notes rise to a crescendo before ending abruptly and repeat after a few minutes; the calling may go on through the day, well after dusk and before dawn.
The common hawk-cuckoo is a medium- to large-sized cuckoo, about the size of a pigeon (ca. 34 cm). The plumage is ashy grey above; whitish below, cross-barred with brown. The tail is broadly barred. The sexes are alike. They have a distinctive yellow eye ring. Subadults have the breast streaked, similar to the immature shikra, and there are large brown chevron marks on the belly. At first glance they can be mistaken for a hawk. When flying they use a flap and glide style that resembles that of sparrowhawks (especially the shikra) and flying upwards and landing on a perch they shake their tails from side to side. Many small birds and squirrels raise the alarm just as they would in the presence of a hawk. The sexes are alike but males tend to be larger.
They can be confused with the large hawk-cuckoo, which, however, has dark streaks on the throat and breast. Young birds have a pale chin but young large hawk-cuckoos have a black chin.
During summer months, before the monsoons, the males are easily detected by their repeated calls but can be difficult to spot. The call is a loud screaming three-note call, repeated 5 or 6 times, rising in crescendo and ending abruptly. It is heard throughout the day and frequently during moonlit nights. The calls of females are a series of grating notes. Common hawk-cuckoos feed mainly on insects and are specialised feeders that can handle hairy caterpillars. Caterpillar guts often contain toxins and like many cuckoos they remove the guts by pressing the caterpillar and rubbing it on a branch before swallowing it. The hairs are swallowed with the caterpillar and are separated in the stomach and regurgitated as a pellet.
The common hawk-cuckoo occurs in most of the Indian subcontinent, from Pakistan in the west, across the Himalayas foothills, east to Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh and south into Sri Lanka. Some birds of the Indian population winter in Sri Lanka. In the hills of central Sri Lanka, ciceliae is a resident. It is generally resident but where occurring at high altitudes and in arid areas is locally migratory. It is found in the lower elevations (mostly below 1000m) of the Himalayas but in the higher areas, the large hawk-cuckoo tends to be more common.
The species is arboreal and rarely descends to the ground. Its habitat includes garden land, groves of tree, deciduous and semi-evergreen forests.
The call of this bird has been popularly transcribed as brain-fever in English (in some old books, this name is also incorrectly used for the Asian koel). Frank Finn noted that [H]is note, however, fully entitles him to his ordinary designation, whether from its "damnable iteration" or from its remarkable resemblance to the word "brain-fever" repeated in a piercing voice running up the scale. Other interpretations of the bird call include peea kahan in Hindi ("where's my love") or chokh gelo (in Bengali, "my eyes are gone") and paos ala (Marathi, "the rains are coming").
The call "Pee kahan" or "Papeeha" is more accurately represented by the shrill screaming "pi-peeah" of the large hawk-cuckoo Hierococcyx sparverioides, which replaces the brainfever bird along the Himalayas and its foothills.
The brainfever bird's call may be heard all through the day, starting early before dawn and frequently during moonlit nights. A novel by the Indian author Allan Sealy is named after this bird.
Thanks for the ID
The Common Hawk-cuckoo Cuculus varius also popularly called the Brainfever bird is a medium sized cuckoo resident in South Asia. It is called a Hawk-cuckoo because of its resemblance to the Shikra hawk. It is a brood parasite, laying its eggs in foster nests.
The Common Hawk-cuckoo is a medium to large sized cuckoo, about the size of a pigeon (ca. 34cm). The plumage is ashy grey above; whitish below, cross-barred with brown. Broadly barred tail. Sexes alike. When flying into trees, they resemble sparrowhawks (Shikra and upon landing on the perch they shake their tails from side to side. During summer months, the call is easily detected by its repeated calls : a loud, screaming dee dee dit, repeated with monotonous persistency 5 or 6 times, rising in crescendo and ending abruptly.
This in its various interpretations provides alternative names: brain-fever (English) or pee kahan (Hindi, "where's my love") or chokh gelo (Bengali, "my eyes are gone") and paos ala (Marathi, "the rains are coming"). Heard all through the day and frequently during moonlit nights. Common Hawk-cuckoos feed on hairy caterpillars and other insects, berries and wild figs, etc.
Like many other cuckoos, this species is a brood parasite, preferring babblers.It's breeding season is March to June, coinciding with that of Turdoides babblers and Garrulax laughingthrushes. A single egg is laid in each nest, blue, like that of the host. The hatchling evicts the eggs of its host and is reared to maturity by foster parents.
Pic taken on 1st June at Mehsana, Gujarat, India
A Babbler is feeding a baby Cuckoo. Foster parenting as nature intended it.
Thanks indianaturewatch.net friends for identification.
Common Hawk Cuckoo Juvenile. also called BrainFever Bird.
also called as :
Malayalam: Shikra Kuyil
Hindi: Kapak, Upak, Papiya
Telugu: kutti pitta
The Common Hawk-cuckoo Cuculus varius also popularly known as the Brainfever bird due to its call, is a medium sized cuckoo resident in South Asia. It bears a close resemblance to the Shikra, a sparrow hawk, even in its style of flying and perching. The resemblance to hawks gives this group the generic name of hawk-cuckoo and like many other cuckoos these are brood parasites, laying their eggs in nests of babblers and laughing-thrushes with the chicks brought up by the foster parents.
This was a record shot. ( The tail got totally hidden by the branches and soon enough this fellow also vanished among the branches)I do hope to get a better shot soon.
An appeal: Please respect the birds and their habitats while photographing them.