Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo (''Hierococcyx nisicolor''), also known as the whistling hawk-cuckoo is a species of
cuckoo
Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae ( ) family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes ( ). The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals, and anis. The coucals and anis are somet ...
found in north-eastern
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
,
Myanmar
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...
, southern
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
and
southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
.
Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo is a
brood parasite
Brood may refer to:
Nature
* Brood, a collective term for offspring
* Brooding, the incubation of bird eggs by their parents
* Bee brood, the young of a beehive
* Individual broods of North American periodical cicadas:
** Brood X, the largest ...
. 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
The cuckoo, common cuckoo, European cuckoo or Eurasian cuckoo (''Cuculus canorus'') is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, Cuculiformes, which includes the Geococcyx, roadrunners, the ani (bird), anis and the coucals.
This species is a widesp ...
) 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 Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...
. 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 (''H. fugax''), Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo (''H. nisicolor'') and
rufous hawk-cuckoo or northern hawk-cuckoo (''H. hyperythrus'').
The common name commemorates the British naturalist
Brian Houghton Hodgson
Brian Houghton Hodgson (1 February 1801 – 23 May 1894) was a pioneer natural history, naturalist and ethnologist working in India and Nepal where he was a British Resident (title), Resident. He described numerous species of birds and mammals fr ...
.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2998690
Hierococcyx
Birds of Eastern Himalaya
Birds of South China
Birds of Hainan
Birds of Myanmar
Birds of Thailand
Birds of Laos
Birds of Vietnam
Birds described in 1821
Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN
Taxa named by Thomas Horsfield