Cuculus poliocephalus
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The lesser cuckoo (Cuculus poliocephalus) is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is native to East Asia and the Himalayas; it winters to East Africa and Sri Lanka. In Japan, the bird is called hototogisu (ホトトギス/杜鵑) and frequently praised in senryu for its song.
It has been celebrated by numerous waka poets since the anthology Kokin wakashū (920). Sei Shōnagon in her essay The Pillow Book (1002) mentions a trip she and other courtiers mounted on just to hear this bird, and it was expected of them that they would compose poetry on the occasion. It is also the central image in poem 81 by Tokudaiji Sanesada in the anthology of 100 poems, the Hyakunin Isshu.
The Japanese haiku magazine Hototogisu takes its name from the bird, and the magazine's mastermind Masaoka Shiki's adopted pen name, Shiki (子規) also refers to the lesser cuckoo; shiki corresponds to the Chinese zǐguī (子規), which is an alias for its standard name dùjuān (杜鵑).
In Chinese, dùjuān is a generic name and the species' common name is xiāodùjuān (小杜鵑). In Korean literature, the song of the lesser cuckoo represents the sound of sadness. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nikko National Park | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 2 | Jiuzhaigou National Park | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 3 | Langtang National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 4 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 5 | Taroko National Park | 🇹🇼 Taiwan |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Cuckoo sighting in Udawalawe National Park on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 160th most-seen of the 166 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Cuckoo in Udawalawe National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January to November, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lesser Cuckoo sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Lesser Cuckoo sightings, Udawalawe National Park ranks 4th at under 5%. The best odds are in Nikko National Park (Japan, about 20%), Jiuzhaigou National Park (China, about 20%) and Langtang National Park (Nepal, about 10%).
Same family: Cuculidae
The closest relatives of the Lesser Cuckoo that you can see in Udawalawe National Park (family Cuculidae, Cuckoos) are Blue-faced Malkoha (about 50%), Greater Coucal (about 40%) and Asian Koel (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lesser Cuckoo is recorded against all the birds logged in Udawalawe National Park (6 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.
