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The grey-bellied cuckoo or the Indian plaintive cuckoo (''Cacomantis passerinus'') is a cuckoo with widespread occurrence throughout Asia.
The grey-bellied cuckoo breeds in tropical southern Asia from India and
The grey-bellied cuckoo is a brood parasite and uses warblers as hosts. It lays a single egg. Its diet consists of a variety of insects and caterpillars. This is a noisy species, with a persistent and loud ''pee-pip-pee-pee'' call, with its tail depressed.
File:Grey-bellied Cuckoo (Cacomantis passerinus) in Kinnarsani WS, AP W IMG 5856.jpg, In Kinnerasani Wildlife Sanctuary, Andhra Pradesh, India.
File:Grey-bellied Cuckoo (Cacomantis passerinus) in Kinnarsani WS, AP W IMG 5863.jpg, In Kinnerasani Wildlife Sanctuary, Andhra Pradesh, India.
File:PolyphasiaPasserinaKeulemans.jpg, Illustration by John Gerrard Keulemans, 1872.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2737391
grey-bellied cuckoo
Birds of India
Birds of the Himalayas
Birds of Nepal
grey-bellied cuckoo
Description
The grey-bellied cuckoo is one of the smaller cuckoos, at a total length of about 23 cm. Adults are mainly grey with a white lower belly and undertail. There is a white patch on the wings. Some females are dark-barred reddish brown above with an unbarred tail and have strongly dark-barred whitish underparts. The juvenile resembles the female but is of a duller grey.Distribution and habitat
The grey-bellied cuckoo breeds in tropical southern Asia from India and 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 ...
to south 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 ...
and Indonesia. It has been reported from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. It is a short-distance migrant, since birds at more northerly latitudes and on higher ground are summer visitors, leaving for warmer areas in winter. The species prefers light woodland and cultivated areas.
Ecology
The grey-bellied cuckoo is a brood parasite and uses warblers as hosts. It lays a single egg. Its diet consists of a variety of insects and caterpillars. This is a noisy species, with a persistent and loud ''pee-pip-pee-pee'' call, with its tail depressed.
References
Gallery