Description:

Medium sized, almost identical to Oriental/Himalayan and best distinguished by song. Adult male dark ashy-grey above, tail blackish brown, spotted and tipped with white, unevenly barred black, underparts white with black bars, eyering yellow, bill black with yellow base and feet yellow. Female similar with rufous-tinged.

Distribution:

Locally common summer visitor to all the areas of Gilgit-Baltistan, mianly to the central and west parts. Prefers both broadleaf and pine high mountainous forest tracts with undergrowth, open and well-wooded country. Mostly between 1500m and 3900m.

Behavior:

Parasitic breeder on a variety of chats, pipits and buntings. Forages in both tree canopy and on ground. Both male and female forage close to the laying sites. Feeds on insects, mainly caterpillars, less often dragonflies, damselflies, mayflies, crickets, cicadas; beetles in cold weather; also spiders, snails, rarely fruit. Preys on eggs and nestlings of small birds.

Photo Gallery:

Range & Occurrence:

Resident Species

Summer Breeder

Winter Visitor

Passage Migrant

Distribution Map of Common Cuckoo in Gilgit-Baltistan (Status: )

Seasonal Occurrence of Common Cuckoo

Resources:

Birds of Pakistan: Helm Field Guides (R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
The Birds of Pakistan (T. J. Roberts)
Birds of the Indian Subcontinent (C. Inskipp, R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide (P. Rasmussen & J. Anderton)
Birds of India: Collins Field Guide (N. Arlott)
Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan (S. Ali & S. D. Ripley)
Handbook of the Birds of the World (https://www.hbw.com)
The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World, 6th Edition
iNaturalist BoGB (inaturalist.org/projects/birds-of-gilgit-baltistan)
Birds of Gilgit-Baltistan (http://fb.me/birdsgb)

*Gallery images on this page are shared from flickr.com, and are copyrighted to their respective creators or owners.