Cuculus micropterus
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10%
The Indian cuckoo or short-winged cuckoo (Cuculus micropterus) is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, the Cuculiformes, that is found in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It ranges from India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka east to Indonesia and north to China and Russia. It is a solitary and shy bird, found in forests and open woodland at up to 3,600 m (11,800 ft).
This is a medium-sized cuckoo with both sexes alike. It has grey upperparts while the underside has broad black barring. The tail is barred with a broad subterminal dark band and a white tip. Young birds have white markings on the crown and white chin and throat contrasting with a dark face. Juveniles are browner and have broad white tips to the head and wing feathers. The eye-ring is gray to yellow (a feature shared with the common hawk-cuckoo). The iris is light brown to reddish. The female differs from the male in being slightly paler grey on the throat and in having more brown on the breast and tail. The barring on the belly is narrower than in the male. Nestlings have an orange-red mouth and yellow flanges to the gape.
The call is loud with four notes. They have been transcribed... Wikipedia →
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an Indian Cuckoo sighting in Tianjin on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 89th most-seen of the 121 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May to July
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Indian Cuckoo in Tianjin on a given day, against under 5% in August to April, the lowest months. Those are among Tianjin's wettest months, with about 90 mm of rain a month against almost none in January.
Between 1 and 4 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Indian 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.
17th of 31
Of the 31 cities where we can rate Indian Cuckoo sightings, Tianjin ranks 17th at under 5%. The best odds are in Hefei (China, about 20%), Beijing (China, about 10%) and Dhaka (Bangladesh, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Indian Cuckoo is recorded against all the birds logged in Tianjin (13 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.
