Banded Bay Cuckoo (Cacomantis sonneratii)
Order: CUCULIFORMES
Family: CUCULIDAE Cuckoos
Scientific name: Cacomantis sonneratii
English name: Banded Bay Cuckoo
Characteristic: Size 23 cm. A small, long-tailed bird having reddish brown upperpart barred all over with brown streaks; its beak is much longer than those of other cuckoos; also with conspicuous pale eyebrow and, under it, a reddish brown eye line; underpart much paler with fine streakings, and white tail tip. It has a characteristic up-right stance when perching.
Distribution: India, Southwest Chian, Southeast Asia, the Greater Sundas and the Philippines.
Habitat: Mixed deciduous forest, evergreen forest, secondary growth, from the plain up to 1,500 m. altitude. Inhabits both the dry dipterocarp and dry evergreen forests in Sakaerat forest.
Habit: Seen usually singly, perching in dense foliage thus quite difficult to detect. Calls mostly in early morning and late afternoon, more intensely during the breeding season. Food consists of insects and insect larvae. This bird is parasitic in breeding habit and depending on other birds such as the ioras, bulbuls and small-sized babblers to incubate its egg and tend its young.
Status: It is a resident bird; uncommonly seen in Sakaerat forest. Also being a protected wild animal by law.
