Cuculus varius
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The common hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx varius), popularly known as the brainfever bird, is a medium-sized cuckoo resident in the Indian subcontinent. It bears a close resemblance to the shikra, even in its style of flying and landing on a perch. The resemblance to hawks gives this group the generic name of hawk-cuckoo; like many other cuckoos, these are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of babblers. During their breeding season in summer males produce loud, repetitive three-note calls that are well-rendered as brain-fever, the second note being longer and higher pitched. These notes rise to a crescendo before ending abruptly and repeat after a few minutes; the calling may go on through the day, well after dusk and before dawn.
The common hawk-cuckoo is a medium- to large-sized cuckoo, about the size of a pigeon (ca. 34 cm). The plumage is ashy grey above; whitish below, cross-barred with brown. The tail is broadly barred. The sexes are alike. They have a distinctive yellow eye ring. Subadults have the breast streaked, similar to the immature shikra, and there are large brown chevron marks on the belly. At first glance they can be mistaken for a hawk. When... Wikipedia →
Recording0:24
India · 2026
© Bikash Kumar Sahoo · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:05
Bangladesh · 2024
© Manoli Strecker · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:13
India · 2024
© sunnyjosef · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kanha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Bandhavgarh National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Periyar National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Mudumalai National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Royal Bardia National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 7 | Bandipur National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Chitwan National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 9 | Jim Corbett National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Satpura National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 11 | Manas National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 12 | Keoladeo National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 13 | Ranthambore National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 14 | Sundarbans National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 15 | Horton Plains National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 16 | Sinharaja Forest Reserve | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 17 | Minneriya National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 18 | Royal Manas National Park | 🇧🇹 Bhutan | |
| 19 | Eravikulam National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 20 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 21 | Kaziranga National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bhubaneshwar | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Asansol | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Tamluk | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Savar | 🇧🇩 Bangladesh | |
| 5 | Patna | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Guwahati | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Bareilly | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Durg | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Tiruppur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Tiruchirappalli | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nehru Zoological Park | 🇮🇳 India |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Common Hawk-Cuckoo sighting in Chennai on a given day, based on 491 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 81st most-seen of the 223 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June, August and December–March
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Common Hawk-Cuckoo in Chennai on a given day, against under 5% in April–May, July and September–November, the lowest months. Those are among Chennai's driest months, with about 60 mm of rain a month against 290 mm in November.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Common Hawk-Cuckoo sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
42nd of 61
Of the 61 cities where we can rate Common Hawk-Cuckoo sightings, Chennai ranks 42nd at about 10%. The best odds are in Bhubaneshwar (India, about 50%), Asansol (India, about 50%) and Tamluk (India, about 50%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Hawk-Cuckoo is recorded against all the birds logged in Chennai (491 verified sightings), 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.
