Bird Guide

Grey-bellied Cuckoo vs Plaintive Cuckoo

Grey-bellied Cuckoo (Cacomantis passerinus)

Grey-bellied Cuckoo

Cacomantis passerinus

Small25 gWoodland

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
Plaintive Cuckoo (Cacomantis merulinus)

Plaintive Cuckoo

Cacomantis merulinus

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The plaintive cuckoo is fairly small, measuring about 21–24 cm (8.3–9.4 in) long. The adult male is grey-brown above and orange below with a grey head, throat and upper breast. The tail feathers have white tips. The legs and feet are yellow, the eye is red and the bill is black above and yellow below. The adult female is sometimes similar to the male but often occurs in a "hepatic" morph. This form is reddish-brown above with dark bars. The underparts are paler with fainter barring. There is a pale stripe over the eye and the tail has dark bars along its whole length.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the Plaintive Cuckoo
Recorded by Michael Frankenstein · Aberrant, call, duet, song · Bali, Kabupaten Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Adam Kamal · CC BY 4.0

Where you might meet both

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