Sirkeer Malkoha

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Sirkeer Malkoha
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Cuculiformes
Family: Cuculidae
Genus: Phaenicophaeus
Species: P. leschenaultii
Binomial name
Phaenicophaeus leschenaultii
(Lesson, 1830)
Synonyms

Taccocua leschenaultii

The Sirkeer Malkoha or Sirkeer Cuckoo (Phaenicophaeus leschenaultii), is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, the Cuculiformes, which also includes the roadrunners, the anis, and the Hoatzin. It is a resident bird in the Indian subcontinent.

Distribution

All of the sub-Himalayan Indian subcontinent, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka; patchy in Pakistan and Rajasthan. Sometimes considered as three races, varying in colouration.

Description

at Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India.
at Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India.
  • Size: A largish bird at 42 cm.
  • Appearance: Mainly earthy brown and rufous in colour, and the long heavy tail is edged with prominently white tipped graduated cross-rayed tail feathers. An obvious relation of the Coucal (Crow Pheasant).[2] Bill is hooked, bright cherry-red and yellow. Sexes are similar, but juveniles are duller and barred above.
  • Habitat: Largely terrestrial, open scrub and thorn jungle, deciduous secondary jungle. Singly or in pairs.
  • Behaviour: Stalks about amongst thickets like Crow-Pheasant, searching for food; insects, lizards, fallen fruits and berries, etc. Runs swiftly through undergrowth looking like mongoose. Feeble flier, but ascends trees rapidly, hopping from branch to branch with great agility, like the Coucal.
  • Call: Normally a subdued "bzuk... bzuk" ; also an alarm call of "p'tang" with a metallic quality.

> Ali, Salim; J C Daniel (1983). The book of Indian Birds, Twelfth Centenary edition. Bombay Natural History Society/Oxford University Press.  Unknown parameter |address= ignored (|location= suggested) (help); </ref> (Glaucidium radiatum)

  • Food: A variety of insects, caterpillars and small vertebrates. It occasionally eats berries.[3]

Nesting

This cuckoo, like other Malkohas, is non-parasitic.

  • Season - March to August (varying with latitude)
  • Nest: a shallow saucer of twigs lined with green leaves, in a thorn bush such as Euphorbia, or sapling 2 to 7 m up.
  • Eggs: 2 or 3, white, with a chalky texture.

The scientific name of this bird commemorates the French botanist Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour.

Gallery

References

  1. ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Phaenicophaeus leschenaultii". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013. 
  2. ↑ Ali, Salim; Sidney Dillon Ripley (1986/2001). Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan, 2nd ed.,10 vols (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.  Unknown parameter |address= ignored (|location= suggested) (help); Bird Number 598
  3. ↑ Grimmett, Richard; Carol Inskipp, and Tim Inskipp (1998). Guide to the Birds of Indian subcontinent. Christopher Helm. ISBN 0-691-04910-6.  Unknown parameter |illustrators= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |collaborators= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |address= ignored (|location= suggested) (help)
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