Horsfield's or Oriental Cuckoo

[Tom Tarrant]

Last night I was asked which 'Oriental' Cuckoo visits Australasia, Cuculus saturatus or horsfieldi (sometimes thought to be just subspecies of C. saturatus)

All comments.....including images would be welcomed!

Tom

[Chris Benesh]

Last night I was asked which 'Oriental' Cuckoo visits Australasia, Cuculus saturatus or horsfieldi (sometimes thought to be just subspecies of C. saturatus)

All comments.....including images would be welcomed!

Tom
Hi Tom,

I'll take a provisional stab at it, although some of the Asian experts in the forum can no doubt do a much more thorough job. As I understand it, most recent treatments of the Oriental Cuckoo group have separated out the large, highly migratory form (Horsfield's) from the smaller, sedentary C. saturatus, which is restricted in the narrow sense to the Himalayas. This is based on vocal and morphological data. These migratory birds have long been known as Horsfield's Cuckoo, C. horsfieldi, yet recent reexamination of the type specimen of C. s. optatus (collected by Gould in Australia) is morphologically like the type of C. horsfieldi, and having been described earlier, takes priority over horsfieldi. Thus, horsfieldi is a junior synonym of optatus. So...birds in Australia are Oriental (Horsfield's) Cuckoos, C. optatus.

Here is a useful link to images and vocal recordings:
http://www.alula.fi/kakijuttu/index.htm

Chris

[Tom Tarrant]

Hi Tom,

I'll take a provisional stab at it, although some of the Asian experts in the forum can no doubt do a much more thorough job. As I understand it, most recent treatments of the Oriental Cuckoo group have separated out the large, highly migratory form (Horsfield's) from the smaller, sedentary C. saturatus, which is restricted in the narrow sense to the Himalayas. This is based on vocal and morphological data. These migratory birds have long been known as Horsfield's Cuckoo, C. horsfieldi, yet recent reexamination of the type specimen of C. s. optatus (collected by Gould in Australia) is morphologically like the type of C. horsfieldi, and having been described earlier, takes priority over horsfieldi. Thus, horsfieldi is a junior synonym of optatus. So...birds in Australia are Oriental (Horsfield's) Cuckoos, C. optatus.

Here is a useful link to images and vocal recordings:
http://www.alula.fi/kakijuttu/index.htm

Chris


Thanks Chris,

Appreciate the help, I've posted images of three birds seen in our area (the first two are probably the same bird) if anyone would like to give further comment.

Tom

[cuckooroller]

Oh dear. Even with quite a few sources I am left with doubt as to the response to the original question. Chris is correct on the current opinion as to the taxonomic invalidity of the taxon name horsfieldi - it cedes to optatus. The races are separated (and for this sometimes considered separate species) on the basis of voice in the breeding range (they don't call in Australia) and also on the slightly greater size of optatus respect to saturatus, and also some very subtle gross morphological plumage features. Morphometrically speaking measurements within the breeding ranges of races saturatus and optatus would have it that the size of the largest saturatus (from W Himalayas) is co-equal to that of the smallest optatus. The reason that there is so much doubt about the past records outside of the breeding range for both races is that without the aid of calling birds they are just very difficult to separate. In any case, from what I can gather both races are migratory in winter. I have both races wintering in Australia. Quite possibly it may require banding calling birds in the breeding ranges and subsequent recapture in Australia to give a definitive answer, or vice-versa.

[Murray Lord]

Tom,

You might find this article on the various forms of Oriental Cuckoos interesting:

http://www.boc-online.org/PDF/KING_Vol125.PDF

Murray Lord
Sydney

PS - Mr Cuckooroller - that's my Cuckoo-Roller photo that you have lifted off the web without asking :-)

[James Eaton]

Also split off is lepidus, Sunda Cuckoo.... this bird is found in the sundaic region east to the Lesser Sundas of Indonesia.