The Asian emerald cuckoo (''Chrysococcyx maculatus'') is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, India, Indonesia,

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

, Malaysia,

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, Nepal,

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitats are

subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Description TSMF is generally found in large, discont ...

s and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest.

Taxonomy

The Asian emerald cuckoo was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist

Johann Friedrich Gmelin , fields = , workplaces = University of GöttingenUniversity of Tübingen , alma_mater = University of Tübingen , doctoral_advisor = Philipp Friedrich GmelinFerdinand Christoph Oetinger , academic_advisors = , doctora ...

in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...

''. He placed it with all the other cuckoos in the genus '' Cuculus'' and coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Cuculus maculatus''. Gmelin based his description on the "Spotted Curucui" from Ceylon that had been described and illustrated in 1776 by the English naturalist Peter Brown. The Asian emerald cuckoo is now placed together with 12 other species in the genus ''

Chrysococcyx ''Chrysococcyx'' is a genus of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. The genus ''Chrysococcyx'' was erected by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1826 with the African emerald cuckoo (''Chrysococcyx cupreus'') as the type species. The name ''Chr ...

'' that was introduced in 1826 by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek χρυσος ''khrusos'' meaning "gold" with κοκκυξ ''kokkux'' "cuckoo". The specific epithet ''maculatus'' is from Latin and means "spotted" or "blotched". The species is monotypic: no

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

are recognised.

Description

The Asian emerald cuckoo grows to a length of about . The adult male has an iridescent dark green head, upper parts and upper breast, a white lower breast and a green barred belly. Bare skin round the eye is orange and the beak is orange/yellow tipped with black. The adult female has coppery-green upper parts, rusty brown crown and nape and green-barred underparts. Both sexes show a white band on the underwing when in flight. The underparts of the juvenile male lack the white lower breast and are more heavily barred. The voice is a “chweek” uttered while flying, and various whistled twitters.

Distribution and habitat

This cuckoo has a breeding range that extends from the Himalayas eastwards to Myanmar, China and northern Thailand. Further south it is a vagrant or migrant in northern India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Sumatra; it is not known to breed in these areas. It frequents forests and woodland margins.

Ecology

The Asian emerald cuckoo mainly forages in the upper levels of the canopy where it feeds on insects and other small invertebrates, including ants, caterpillars and bugs. It is a

brood parasite Brood parasites are animals that rely on others to raise their young. The strategy appears among birds, insects and fish. The brood parasite manipulates a host, either of the same or of another species, to raise its young as if it were its own ...

, the females laying their eggs in the nests of other birds, such as the crimson sunbird (''Aethopyga siparaja'') and the

little spiderhunter The little spiderhunter (''Arachnothera longirostra'') is a species of long-billed nectar-feeding bird in the family Nectariniidae found in the moist forests of South and Southeast Asia. Unlike typical sunbirds, males and females are very similar ...

(''Arachnothera longirostra'').

Status

''C. maculatus'' has a very wide range but is generally an uncommon species. No particular threats have been recognised and the population is believed to be stable, so the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of " least concern".

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q864740

Asian emerald cuckoo The Asian emerald cuckoo (''Chrysococcyx maculatus'') is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietna ...

Birds of Nepal Birds of Eastern Himalaya Birds of Yunnan Birds of South China Birds of Hainan Birds of Southeast Asia

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot