Description:

Smaller and more lightly built than other cuckoos. Adult male slate-grey and female rufous above, tail and uppertail-coverts contrastingly blackish, tail with white tip and white spots at sides; throat and breast light grey, belly white with black bars. Eyering yellow and bill black with yellow base.

Distribution:

Uncommon summer visitor only limited to lower areas of Astore district. Prefers both coniferous and deciduous forests and woodlands with secondary undergrowth, wooded steppe, meadows and scrub. From lowlands to hill country at 2000m.

Behavior:

Parasitic mainly or entirely on small bush and leaf warblers. Forages in both tree canopy and on ground. Usually remain well hidden in tree canopy. Feeds chiefly on insects, mainly caterpillars, beetles and grasshoppers, also feeds on other invertebrates like beetles, hymenoptera and mantids.

Photo Gallery:

Range & Occurrence:

Resident Species

Summer Breeder

Winter Visitor

Passage Migrant

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

Seasonal Occurrence of Lesser 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.