Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo (''Hierococcyx nisicolor''), also known as the whistling hawk-cuckoo is a species of cuckoo found in north-eastern India,

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 ...

, southern

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 southeast Asia. Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo 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 chick evicts bona fide residents of the parasitized nest, thus becoming the sole occupant. Under normal circumstances, this would reduce the provisioning rate as the foster parents see only one gape. To counteract this, the Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo displays gape-coloured patches of skin under its wing to simulate additional gapes; the strategy appears to increase the provisioning rate. This is in contrast to other species of cuckoo (such as the common cuckoo) which increase the rapidity of high pitched hunger calls to increase the provisioning rate. Although the skin patch is not gape shaped, it is convincing: host parents occasionally place food into the patch. Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo was formerly regarded as having four

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 ...

. The Philippine hawk-cuckoo is now commonly treated as a separate species, ''H. pectoralis''. The remaining forms are also now split into three species:

Malaysian hawk-cuckoo The Malaysian hawk-cuckoo or Malay hawk-cuckoo (''Hierococcyx fugax'') is a bird in the family Cuculidae formerly considered conspecific with Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo and the rufous hawk-cuckoo. All three species were previously assigned as ''Cuculus ...

(''H. fugax''), Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo (''H. nisicolor'') and

rufous hawk-cuckoo The rufous hawk-cuckoo or northern hawk-cuckoo (''Hierococcyx hyperythrus'') is a bird in the family Cuculidae formerly thought to be conspecific with Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo (''Hierococcyx fugax'') and placed in the genus '' Cuculus''. Geographic ...

or northern hawk-cuckoo (''H. hyperythrus''). The common name commemorates the British naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2998690 Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo Birds of Eastern Himalaya Birds of South China Birds of Hainan Birds of Myanmar Birds of Thailand Birds of Laos Birds of Vietnam Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN