Cuckoos (Cuculidae)

Large Hawk-Cuckoo (Cuculus sparverioides) - HBW 4, p. 549

French: Coucou épervier German: Sperberkuckuck Spanish: Cuco Grande
Other common names: Brain-fever Bird

Taxonomy: Cuculus sparverioïdes Vigors, 1832, Himalayas.
Often placed in genus Hierococcyx, along with other hawk-cuckoos, on grounds of notable morphological differences from Cuculus. Two subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

  • sparverioides Vigors, 1832 - Himalayas from N Pakistan and India to Nepal, Naga Hills and Manipur, whence E to China (Sichuan and lower Yangtze valley), and S to Myanmar, Thailand and Indochina; winters mainly from Bangladesh and Thailand S to S & E India and Greater Sundas, and E to Philippines.
  • bocki (R. G. W. Ramsay, 1886) - mountains of Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo.