Taccocua leschenaultii
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The sirkeer malkoha or sirkeer cuckoo (Taccocua leschenaultii), is a non-parasitic cuckoo found in dry scrub forest and open woodland habitats in the Indian subcontinent. The species is long-tailed, largely olive brown on the upper side with a distinctive curved red beak tipped in yellow. They forage singly or in pairs mainly on or close to the ground creeping between grasses and bushes, often on rocky habitats where they feed on small lizards, insects, and sometimes berries and seeds. They are very silent and the sexes are identical in plumage.
The sirkeer cuckoo is about 42–44 centimetres (16+1⁄2–17+1⁄4 in) long with dark olive brown on the back, wings and the central tail feathers. The underside is rufous. A greenish gloss is visible on the wing and dark parts of the tail feathers. The feathers have dark shafts which are especially prominent on the breast as streaks. The tail is graduated (with outer feathers being sequentially shorter) and tipped broadly in white. The upper tail coverts are long. The chin, throat and breast are pale. The most distinctive feature is the curved red bill with a yellow tip. The eyes have curved and long bristles around the eye but... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 2 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 3 | Bandhavgarh National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Satpura National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Royal Bardia National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 6 | Kanha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Bandipur National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Ranthambore National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Jim Corbett National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Keoladeo National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jaipur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | New Delhi | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Visakhapatnam | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Nagpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Bengaluru | 🇮🇳 India |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Sirkeer Malkoha sighting in Royal Bardia National Park on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 182nd most-seen of the 233 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May, July and September
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Sirkeer Malkoha in Royal Bardia National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June and October–April, the lowest months. Those are among Royal Bardia National Park's wettest months, with about 300 mm of rain a month against almost none in November. August has too few records to rate.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Sirkeer Malkoha sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 10
Of the 10 parks where we can rate Sirkeer Malkoha sightings, Royal Bardia National Park ranks 5th at under 5%. The best odds are in Udawalawe National Park (Sri Lanka, about 30%), Yala National Park (Sri Lanka, about 10%) and Bandhavgarh National Park (India, about 10%).
Same family: Cuculidae
The closest relatives of the Sirkeer Malkoha that you can see in Royal Bardia National Park (family Cuculidae, Cuckoos) are Greater Coucal (about 30%), Common Hawk-Cuckoo (about 30%) and Green-billed Malkoha (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Sirkeer Malkoha is recorded against all the birds logged in Royal Bardia National Park (13 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.
