Greater Coucal
Centropus sinensis
A big, skulking crow-pheasant with deep red eyes.
Seen atHaldwani
Opens recordings on xeno-canto, the open bird-sound archive.
What the hills call it
Mahokha
/ ma·ho·khaa /महोखा
Greater Coucal — A big, skulking crow-pheasant with deep red eyes.
Field notes
- Order
- Cuculiformes
- Family
- Cuculidae · Cuckoos
- Genus
- Centropus
- Length
- 48 cm
- Weight
- 250–340 g
- At Kunja
- Resident — here all year round
- Conservation
- Least Concern
How to know it
A big, heavy, crow-like bird with glossy black body, rich chestnut wings and deep red eyes. Clambers about clumsily rather than flies far.
What it eats
A predator — large insects, caterpillars, lizards, frogs, snakes, eggs and nestlings, hunted low in dense cover.
Where & when to spot it
Skulking through thick scrub, hedges and undergrowth near the ground, betrayed by a deep, resonant 'coop-coop-coop'.
Nesting & mating
Builds a bulky domed nest of twigs and leaves deep in a thicket; two to four eggs.
In the lens
Greater Coucal, photographed at Haldwani
Photographs by Manohar Negi · mnegi.com — tap any photo to view it full
More to spot
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Passer domesticus
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SturnidaeCommon Myna
Acridotheres tristis
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HirundinidaeRed-rumped Swallow
Cecropis daurica
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PycnonotidaeHimalayan Bulbul
Pycnonotus leucogenys
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MegalaimidaeGreat Barbet
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