Bird Guide

Banded Bay Cuckoo vs Grey-bellied Cuckoo

Banded Bay Cuckoo (Cacomantis sonneratii)

Banded Bay Cuckoo

Cacomantis sonneratii

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The adults are bright rufous or bay on the head and back and are broadly barred with dark brown. The bill is long and slightly curved. A whitish supercilium is distinctive above a dark eye-line. The wing is darker and tail is graduated with a dark brown centre. The tail has a subterminal black band and white tips to the feathers. The sexes are alike. The iris is yellow and the bill is black while the base of the lower mandible is greenish grey. The tarsi are grey. The juvenile is similar but has a pale lower mandible and white fringes to the feathers of the upper body.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the Banded Bay Cuckoo
Recorded by Sudipto Roy · Call · Kankrajhore, India · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Mike Prince · CC BY 2.0
Grey-bellied Cuckoo (Cacomantis passerinus)

Grey-bellied Cuckoo

Cacomantis passerinus

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The grey-bellied cuckoo is one of the smaller cuckoos, at a total length of about 23 cm. Adults are mainly grey with a white lower belly and undertail. There is a white patch on the wings. Some females are dark-barred reddish brown above with an unbarred tail and have strongly dark-barred whitish underparts. The juvenile resembles the female but is of a duller grey.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the Grey-bellied Cuckoo
Recorded by K L Vinay · Call, song · Bhupal housing Colony, Tirupati, Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, India · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Rison Thumboor from Thrissur, India · CC BY 2.0

Where you might meet both

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Banded Bay Cuckoo and Grey-bellied Cuckoo.