Sirkeer Malkoha
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Order: Cuculiformes
Family: Cuculidae
Synonyms: Taccocua leschenaltii

[Photo] Sirkeer Malkoha (Phaenicophaeus leschenaultii) at Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India. Date: 4.1.06. Author: J.M.Garg (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:J.M.Garg).

Copyright (C) 2006 J. M. Garg Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

The Sirkeer Malkoha or Sirkeer Cuckoo (Phaenicophaeus leschenaultii), is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, the Cuculiformes, which also includes the roadrunners, the anis, and the Hoatzin. It is a resident bird in the Indian subcontinent.

Distribution
All of the sub-Himalayan Indian subcontinent, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka; patchy in Pakistan and Rajasthan. Sometimes considered as three races, varying in colouration.

Description
Size: A largish bird at 42cm.
Appearance: Mainly earthy brown and rufous in colour, and the long heavy tail is edged with prominently white tipped graduated cross-rayed tail feathers. An obvious relation of the Coucal (Crow Pheasant). Bill is hooked, bright cherry-red and yellow. Sexes are similar, but juveniles are duller and barred above.
Habitat: Largely terrestrial, open scrub and thorn jungle, deciduous secondary jungle. Singly or in pairs.
Behaviour: Stalks about amongst thickets like Crow-Pheasant, searching for food; insects, lizards, fallen fruits and berries, etc. Runs swiftly through undergrowth looking like mongoose. Feeble flier, but ascends trees rapidly, hopping from branch to branch with great agility, like the Coucal.
Call: Sharp loud "kek-kek-kek-kerek-kerek-kerek" of the quality of the shrieks of Rose-ringed Parakeet; also reminiscent in a way of call of Barred Jungle Owlet (Glaucidium radiatum)
Food: A variety of insects, caterpillars and small vertebrates. It occasionally eats berries.

Nesting
This cuckoo, like other Malkohas, is non-parasitic.

Season - March to August (varying with latitude)
Nest: a shallow saucer of twigs lined with green leaves, in a thorn bush such as Euphorbia, or sapling 2 to 7 m up.
Eggs: 2 or 3, white, with a chalky texture.

The scientific name of this bird commemorates the French botanist Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirkeer_Malkoha

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