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Common Hawk Cuckoo

Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the common hawk cuckoo from the Bengal region.

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the common hawk cuckoo from the Bengal region. The repetitive call of the common hawk-cuckoo, otherwise known as the brain-fever bird, is one of the typical sounds of rural India and on into the foothills of the Himalayas. Its name partly derives from its call sounding like "brain fever" but also what one writer called its repetition being a "damnable iteration". It looks like a bird of prey, and flies like one too, imitating the flapping glide of a sparrowhawk in the region, known as the shikra, often accompanied by mobbing small birds. Unwittingly as they mob her, birds like babblers betray their nest, into which the cuckoo will lay her egg.

Producer : Andrew Dawes

Available now

2 minutes

Last on

Mon 24 Jul 2023 05:58

Common Hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx varius)

Webpage image courtesy of Bernard Castelein / naturepl.com.

Β© Bernard Castelein / naturepl.com

Broadcasts

  • Tue 14 Oct 2014 05:58
  • Mon 5 Oct 2015 05:58
  • Sun 11 Oct 2015 08:58
  • Sun 28 Jul 2019 08:58
  • Mon 1 Mar 2021 05:58
  • Thu 18 Aug 2022 05:58
  • Mon 24 Jul 2023 05:58

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