Common Cuckoo Cuculus canorus 大杜鵑
Category I. Accidental or rare spring migrant.
IDENTIFICATION
May 2023, Michelle and Peter Wong.
38-40 cm. Birds that are not vocalising can be difficult to separate from Oriental Cuckoo, but in general are slightly larger in size, usually with much finer blackish barring on the belly and no clearcut white band across the underwing. Adults of both sexes have a yellow eye-ring and yellow iris.
May 2023, Michelle and Peter Wong..
There is variation in colour tones, but adults of subspecies bakeri tend to be as dark on the mantle as Oriental Cuckoo whereas grey-morph adults of subspecies canorus and (usually) subtelephonus have noticeably paler grey mantles. On hepatic females, the rump is usually unbarred.
VOCALISATIONS
The typical song is a somewhat ventriloquial ‘kuk-koo’.
A bubbling call is uttered by the female.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
Records are from fung shui woodland on Po Toi and a small wooded outcrop on the edge of fishponds at Mai Po.
OCCURRENCE
2007: an adult on Po Toi on 4 April 2007 (Welch 2011).
2020: an adult in song at Pak Hok Chau, Mai Po during 20-23 May.
BEHAVIOUR, DIET & FORAGING
Secretive, often in the canopy, though may sit in full view when in song or excited.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Breeds widely from Europe and north Africa through southwest Asia and Russia to Mongolia, north and central China, Kamchatka and Japan, and also from the Himalayas through north Indochina to south China; winters in Africa, south and southeast Asia (Payne 1997). Of four subspecies recognised, three occur in China as breeding summer visitors: subtelephonus in the northwest and south, nominate canorus in central and northern parts and bakeri in the southwest. However, it is currently unclear which subspecies has occurred in HK.
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend stable.
Payne, R. B. (1997). Family Cuculidae (Cuckoos) in del Hoyo, J., Elliot, A. and J. Sargatal. Handbook of the Birds of the World, vol. 4: Sandgrouse to Cuckoos. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain.
Welch, G. (2011). Common Cuckoo Cuculus canorus on Po Toi Island: the first Hong Kong record. Hong Kong Bird Report 2007-08: 250-252.
