Cuculus vagans
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
The moustached hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx vagans) is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand. Its natural habitat is evergreen and secondary forests. Threatened by habitat loss, it has been assessed as a near-threatened species.
Salomon Müller described the species in 1845, as Cuculus vagans. The species is monotypic. The moustached hawk-cuckoo is found in southern Myanmar, Thailand, southern Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and Kalimantan, Sumatra and Java of Indonesia. Its habitat is evergreen and secondary forests and forest edges, especially on hills and in alluvial and bamboo forests. It occurs at elevations up to 915 m (3,002 ft).
The moustached hawk-cuckoo is 25–30 cm (9.8–11.8 in) long, and it weighs about 58–63 g (2.0–2.2 oz). The crown and nape are grey. The ear coverts are white, and there is a blackish moustache. The back is brown, and the tail has brown bands and a buffy or white tip. The flight feathers have buffy bars. The underparts are creamy-white, with blackish streaks. The eye is dark brown or grey, with a yellow eye-ring around... Wikipedia →
Recording1:01
Malaysia · 2024
© Dixon Lau · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Danum Valley Conservation Area | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 2 | Taman Negara National Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 3 | Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 4 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 5 | Kinabalu Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Moustached Hawk-Cuckoo sighting in Danum Valley Conservation Area on a given day, based on 84 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 157th most-seen of the 258 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March, June, August–October and December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Moustached Hawk-Cuckoo in Danum Valley Conservation Area on a given day, against under 5% in January–February, April–May, July and November, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Moustached Hawk-Cuckoo sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Moustached Hawk-Cuckoo sightings, Danum Valley Conservation Area has the highest daily chance: about 10%. Next come Taman Negara National Park (Malaysia, under 5%) and Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary (Malaysia, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Moustached Hawk-Cuckoo is recorded against all the birds logged in Danum Valley Conservation Area (84 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.
