32–34 cm from bill to tail, the tail 13–15 cm, wingspan 55–60 cm, short legs. A slender grey body and long tail, like a sparrowhawk in flight but with regular wingbeats. Males are slate-grey, the grey throat running well down the breast with a sharp line to the barred white underparts; iris, orbital ring, bill base and feet yellow. Grey females have a pinkish-buff wash on the breast, and a rufous morph occurs, mostly in juveniles. In the breeding season it sits on an open perch with drooped wings and raised tail.
Habitat
Forest edge, reed marsh, farmland shelterbelts, riverside scrub and tall park trees; a brood parasite laying in the nests of dunnocks, pipits, reed warblers and other hosts, its eggs resembling each host's own.
Distribution
A widespread summer migrant to Europe and Asia, wintering in Africa. Common in eastern China and Japan from May to September, its two-note call the sign of early summer; absent from Singapore, where the passage cuckoos are other species.
Season and behaviour
In eastern China and Japan from May to August; in May and June the male calls cuck-oo all day, falling silent after July and leaving in September. Adults mimic the sparrowhawk, letting the female approach host nests unmolested.
Photography tips
These are the FilmAnalysis editors' notes, not content from the sources.
Listen first, then find the grey shape on a treetop; it calls from one perch for a long time, so a long lens from below shows the barred underparts and yellow eye-ring. In flight it looks like a hawk: 1/2000 s. A reed warbler feeding a cuckoo chick several times its size is the late-summer classic; keep far back with a long lens and never approach the nest.
Field ethics: keep a distance at which the bird does not change its behaviour; never approach or publish nest sites; no baiting, playback or flash; never clear vegetation around a nest; follow reserve rules and stay on paths.
Photographic styles
Early-summer silhouettes on high branches; grey-and-white bar patterns.
Similar species
Oriental cuckoo (slightly smaller, broader and sparser bars, a hoo-hoo call); Indian cuckoo (four-note call, grey-brown breast); sparrowhawk (short rounded wings, different wingbeats, yellow eye but no yellow bill base).
Related badge
None yet. No validated photo recognition exists for this species, so no badge is tied to it: a name in the encyclopedia is not evidence in a photograph.
The illustration is original FilmAnalysis artwork. No photographs yet: only photos cleared for commercial use with credit will be added.
