Cacomantis sonneratii
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The banded bay cuckoo or bay-banded cuckoo (Cacomantis sonneratii) is a species of small cuckoo found in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Like others in the genus they have round nostrils. They are usually founded in well-wooded areas mainly in the lower hills. Males sing from exposed branches during the breeding season, which can vary with region. They are distinctive both in their calls as well as plumage with a white eyebrowed appearance and the rufous upperparts with regular dark bands and the whitish underside with fine striations.
The adults are bright rufous or bay on the head and back and are broadly barred with dark brown. The bill is long and slightly curved. A whitish supercilium is distinctive above a dark eye-line. The wing is darker and tail is graduated with a dark brown centre. The tail has a subterminal black band and white tips to the feathers. The sexes are alike. The iris is yellow and the bill is black while the base of the lower mandible is greenish grey. The tarsi are grey. The juvenile is similar but has a pale lower mandible and white fringes to the feathers of the upper body.
The overall length is about 22 cm making it about the... Wikipedia →
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Banded Bay Cuckoo sighting in Periyar National Park on a given day, based on 95 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 141st most-seen of the 227 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November to January
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Banded Bay Cuckoo in Periyar National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February to October, the lowest months. Those are among Periyar National Park's driest months, with about 100 mm of rain a month against 410 mm in August.
Between 2 and 5 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Banded Bay Cuckoo sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
15th of 28
Of the 28 parks where we can rate Banded Bay Cuckoo sightings, Periyar National Park ranks 15th at under 5%. The best odds are in Kaeng Krachan National Park (Thailand, about 20%), Doi Inthanon National Park (Thailand, about 20%) and Cat Tien National Park (Vietnam, about 20%).
Same family: Cuculidae
The closest relatives of the Banded Bay Cuckoo that you can see in Periyar National Park (family Cuculidae, Cuckoos) are Greater Coucal (about 40%), Common Hawk-Cuckoo (about 40%) and Asian Koel (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Banded Bay Cuckoo is recorded against all the birds logged in Periyar National Park (95 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.
