Cacomantis merulinus
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
The plaintive cuckoo (Cacomantis merulinus) is a species of bird belonging to the genus Cacomantis in the cuckoo family Cuculidae. It is native to Asia, from India, Nepal and China to Indonesia. The plaintive cuckoo is fairly small, measuring about 21–24 cm (8.3–9.4 in) long. The adult male is grey-brown above and orange below with a grey head, throat and upper breast. The tail feathers have white tips. The legs and feet are yellow, the eye is red and the bill is black above and yellow below. The adult female is sometimes similar to the male but often occurs in a "hepatic" morph. This form is reddish-brown above with dark bars. The underparts are paler with fainter barring. There is a pale stripe over the eye and the tail has dark bars along its whole length. Juvenile birds are similar to hepatic females but are paler and have dark streaks rather than bars on the crown and throat.
The male has several plaintive whistling calls. These include an ascending series of three-note phrases and a series of 11 or 12 descending notes. There are four subspecies. The nominate form C. m. merulinus is found in the Philippines where it is common... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Khao Luang National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 2 | Way Kambas National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 3 | Taman Negara National Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 4 | Sepilok | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 5 | Bako National Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 6 | Danum Valley Conservation Area | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 7 | Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 8 | Khao Sok National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 9 | Cuc Phuong National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 10 | Cat Tien National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 11 | Bali Barat National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 12 | Gunung Leuser National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 13 | Royal Manas National Park | 🇧🇹 Bhutan | |
| 14 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 15 | Manas National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 16 | Kerinci Seblat National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 17 | Doi Inthanon National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 18 | Khao Yai National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 19 | Sundarbans National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 20 | Kaziranga National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 21 | Kinabalu Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 22 | Namdapha National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Đà Nẵng | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 2 | Phnom Penh | 🇰🇭 Cambodia | |
| 3 | Bangkok | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 4 | Hanoi | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 5 | Denpasar | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 6 | Cần Thơ | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 7 | Jakarta | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 8 | Zhuhai [Macau] | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 9 | Ho Chi Minh City | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 10 | Savar | 🇧🇩 Bangladesh |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Plaintive Cuckoo sighting in Hanoi on a given day, based on 83 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 20th most-seen of the 97 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April
In that month about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Plaintive Cuckoo in Hanoi on a given day, against about 10% in November to January, the lowest months. That is one of Hanoi's driest months, with about 80 mm of rain against 320 mm in August.
Between 1 and 4 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Plaintive Cuckoo sightings with a recorded time, and about half of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
4th of 34
Of the 34 cities where we can rate Plaintive Cuckoo sightings, Hanoi ranks 4th at about 30%. The best odds are in Đà Nẵng (Vietnam, about 50%), Phnom Penh (Cambodia, about 40%) and Bangkok (Thailand, about 30%).
Same family: Cuculidae
The closest relatives of the Plaintive Cuckoo that you can see in Hanoi (family Cuculidae, Cuckoos) are Greater Coucal (about 40%), Asian Koel (about 10%) and Lesser Coucal (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Plaintive Cuckoo is recorded against all the birds logged in Hanoi (83 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.
