Taccocua leschenaultii
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Sirkeer Malkoha sighting in Yala National Park on a given day, based on 92 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 126th most-seen of the 220 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July and November
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Sirkeer Malkoha in Yala National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February, June and August, the lowest months. Those are among Yala National Park's wettest months, with about 190 mm of rain a month against 35 mm in June.
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.
2nd of 10
Of the 10 parks where we can rate Sirkeer Malkoha sightings, Yala National Park ranks 2nd at about 10%. The best odds are in Udawalawe National Park (Sri Lanka, about 30%).
Same family: Cuculidae
The closest relatives of the Sirkeer Malkoha that you can see in Yala National Park (family Cuculidae, Cuckoos) are Greater Coucal (about 40%), Asian Koel (about 30%) and Blue-faced Malkoha (about 30%), 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 Yala National Park (92 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.
