Cuckoos
The Hodgson’s Hawk-cuckoos (also known as Horsfield’s Hawk-cuckoo), Cuculus fugax is a species of cuckoo found in south, east and southeast Asia.
Hodgson’s Hawk-cuckoo is a brood parasite. The chick evicts bona fide residents of the parasitized nest, thus becoming the sole occupant. Under normal circumstances, this would reduce the provisioning rate as the foster parents see only one gape. To counteract this, the Hodgson’s Hawk-cuckoo displays gape-colored patches of skin under its wing to simulate additional gapes; the strategy appears to increase the provisioning rate. This is in contrast to other species of cuckoo (such as the Common Cuckoo) which increase the rapidity of high pitched hunger calls to increase the provisioning rate.
Although the skin patch is not gape-shaped, it is convincing: host parents occasionally place food into the patch.
Sub-species
Hodgson’s Hawk-cuckoos was formerly regarded as having four subspecies.
The Philippine Hawk-cuckoo is now commonly treated as a separate species, C. pectoralis.
The remaining forms are also sometimes split into three species:
- Malaysian Hawk-cuckoo (C. fugax),
- Hodgson’s Hawk-cuckoo (C. nisicolor) and
- Northern Hawk-cuckoo (C. hyperythrus).
References
- BirdLife International (2004). Cuculus fugax. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
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