Clamator coromandus
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The chestnut-winged cuckoo or red-winged crested cuckoo (Clamator coromandus) is a cuckoo found in Southeast Asia and parts of South Asia. It has dark glossy upperparts, a black head with long crest chestnut wings, a long graduated glossy black tail, rufous throat dusky underside and a narrow white nuchal half collar. They breed along the Himalayas and migrate south in winter to Sri Lanka, southern India and tropical Southeast Asia including parts of Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. It is about 47 cm (19 in) long.
This dark and crested cuckoo has chestnut wings, a glossy black crest and a graduated tail (the feathers shortening in steps from the center outwards) whose terminal edges are white and inconspicuous unlike the white tips of the Jacobin cuckoo which is found in parts of its range. The black capping on the head is broken from black of the back by a white collar that extends to the sides of the neck. The lower parts are rufous turning to dark grey towards the vent. Young birds are dusky with a scaly appearance to the wing feathers.
The species was first given its binomial name by Linnaeus in 1766. His description of what he called Cuculus... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal Manas National Park | 🇧🇹 Bhutan | |
| 2 | Cat Tien National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 3 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 4 | Manas National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Wilpattu National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 6 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 7 | Periyar National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 9 | Namdapha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Chitwan National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 11 | Doi Inthanon National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut-winged Cuckoo sighting in Chitwan National Park on a given day, based on 7 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 338th most-seen of the 367 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut-winged Cuckoo in Chitwan National Park on a given day, against under 5% in July to May, the lowest months. That is one of Chitwan National Park's wettest months, with about 400 mm of rain against almost none in November.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Chestnut-winged Cuckoo sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
10th of 11
Of the 11 parks where we can rate Chestnut-winged Cuckoo sightings, Chitwan National Park ranks 10th at under 5%. The best odds are in Royal Manas National Park (Bhutan, about 10%), Cat Tien National Park (Vietnam, under 5%) and Kaeng Krachan National Park (Thailand, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Chestnut-winged Cuckoo is recorded against all the birds logged in Chitwan National Park (7 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
