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Photo: Ron Knight · CC BY 2.0 (May be cropped or resized)
Cuculus saturatus
Diet
Invertebrates
Habitat
Forest; 1,500–3,300m in the Himalaya
Range
Breeds from the Himalaya east to southern China and Taiwan; winters in Southeast Asia and the Greater Sundas
Size
30–35cm
Weight
70–140g
The Himalayan cuckoo, formerly the Oriental cuckoo, is a brood-parasitic cuckoo about 30–35 cm long and 70–140 g. Adult males are dark ashy grey above with a brown, almost black, white-spotted and tipped tail. The area from the chin to the breast is ash-grey, the lower breast and abdomen white with black bars, and the vent white to milky orange, and the legs and feet yellow to orange with a yellow eye ring. Its call is a high note followed by three lower flat notes, like a muffled hoopoe (Wikipedia, general species account).
It breeds from the Himalaya eastward to southern China and Taiwan, usually above the tree line at 1,500–3,300 m, and migrates to Southeast Asia and the Greater Sunda Islands for the winter. In 2005 the old Oriental cuckoo was found to be several species (Wikipedia, general species account).