Plaintive Cuckoo

Plaintive Cuckoo is a fairly small cuckoo, 21–24 cm long, native to Asia from India, Nepal and China to Indonesia. The adult male is grey-brown above and orange below with a grey head, throat and upper breast, white-tipped tail feathers, yellow legs and feet, a red eye and a bill that is black above and yellow below. One form is reddish brown above with dark bars (Wikipedia, general species account). (Wikipedia, general species account).

The nominate form C. m. merulinus is found in the Philippines where it is common on many of the larger islands. It is a summer visitor to most of its Chinese range, migrating south for the winter. C. m. threnodes is found in the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo while C. m. lanceolatus occurs in Java, Bali and Sulawesi. The plaintive cuckoo inhabits forest edge, open woodland, scrub, grassland, farmland, parks and gardens. (Wikipedia, general species account).