Indian Cuckoo

The Indian cuckoo, or short-winged cuckoo, is a medium-sized, solitary and shy cuckoo. Both sexes have grey upperparts and broad black barring below, and the tail has a broad dark band near the tip and a white end; the female is slightly paler on the throat and browner on the breast and tail. The eye-ring is grey to yellow. Its loud four-note call has been written as orange-pekoe, crossword puzzle or one more bottle, and is often the best way to find it (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lives in forest and open woodland up to 3,600m, feeding in the upper canopy on hairy caterpillars and other insects and sometimes fruit, and occasionally sallying after flying termites. It is a brood parasite that lays a single egg, mostly in the nests of drongos and crows, and the female removes and eats one of the host's eggs before laying. SoIB 2023 lists it as a summer migrant in India with localized winter populations and a large range, has too little data for a trend, and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).