Oriental Cuckoo

The Oriental cuckoo, or Horsfield's cuckoo, was formerly classified as a subspecies of the Himalayan cuckoo, which is extremely similar but slightly smaller and shorter-winged. The adult male has a grey head, breast and upperparts, a creamy-white belly with dark bars, orange-yellow legs and feet, and a bare yellow ring around the eye. The grey morph resembles the male with a brownish wash on the breast (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is a brood parasite, laying smooth, slightly glossy eggs that vary in colour and sometimes mimic the host's. They are incubated for about 12 days, and within a few days the young cuckoo pushes the eggs or young of the host out of the nest. Young birds fledge after about 17–19 days. The male's call is a series of low paired notes, poo-poo, somewhat like the hoopoe's, and the female gives a deep bubbling trill (Wikipedia, general species account).