Cuculus fugax
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx nisicolor), also known as the whistling hawk-cuckoo, is a species of cuckoo found in north-eastern India, Myanmar, southern China and southeast Asia. Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo is a brood parasite. The chick evicts bona fide residents of the parasitized nest, thus becoming the sole occupant. Under normal circumstances, this would reduce the provisioning rate as the foster parents see only one gape. To counteract this, the Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo displays gape-coloured patches of skin under its wing to simulate additional gapes; the strategy appears to increase the provisioning rate. This is in contrast to other species of cuckoo (such as the common cuckoo) which increase the rapidity of high pitched hunger calls to increase the provisioning rate.
Although the skin patch is not gape shaped, it is convincing: host parents occasionally place food into the patch. Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo was formerly regarded as having four subspecies. The Philippine hawk-cuckoo is now commonly treated as a separate species, H. pectoralis. The remaining forms are also now split into three species: Malaysian hawk-cuckoo (H. fugax), Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo (H. nisicolor) and rufous hawk-cuckoo or northern hawk-cuckoo (H. hyperythrus).
The common name commemorates the British naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson. Wikipedia →
Recording0:27
Thailand · 2022
© Kittakorn · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Taman Negara National Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 2 | Danum Valley Conservation Area | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 3 | Sepilok | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 4 | Kinabalu Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 5 | Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary | 🇲🇾 Malaysia |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Singapore | 🇸🇬 Singapore | |
| 2 | Kuala Lumpur | 🇲🇾 Malaysia |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Hodgson's Hawk-Cuckoo sighting in Taman Negara National Park on a given day, based on 49 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 174th most-seen of the 293 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.
March–April, July and December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Hodgson's Hawk-Cuckoo in Taman Negara National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January–February, May–June and August–November, the lowest months.
Yes
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Hodgson's Hawk-Cuckoo sightings, Taman Negara National Park has the highest daily chance: under 5%. Next come Danum Valley Conservation Area (Malaysia, under 5%) and Sepilok (Malaysia, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Hodgson's Hawk-Cuckoo is recorded against all the birds logged in Taman Negara National Park (49 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.
