CreatureData

Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo

Hierococcyx nisicolor (Blyth, 1843)

LCLeast Concernbirds

The hodgson's hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx nisicolor) is a species in the family Cuculidae, order Cuculiformes. Recorded adults weigh 79.7 g to 81.1 g. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx nisicolor)
Photo: Rejaul karim.rk · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the hodgson's hawk-cuckoo

Weight
79.7 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Invertivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
forestsrc for Habitat
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
Lifestyle
Perchingsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Sedentarysrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
Not recorded

Where does the hodgson's hawk-cuckoo live?

Not recorded

What is the hodgson's hawk-cuckoo?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx nisicolor), also known as the whistling hawk-cuckoo, is a species of cuckoo found in north-eastern India, Myanmar, southern China 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-coloured 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.

Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo was formerly regarded as having four subspecies. The Philippine hawk-cuckoo is now commonly treated as a separate species, H. pectoralis. The remaining forms are also now split into three species: Malaysian hawk-cuckoo (H. fugax), Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo (H. nisicolor) and rufous hawk-cuckoo or northern hawk-cuckoo (H. hyperythrus).

The common name commemorates the British naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson.

From the Wikipedia article “Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hodgson%27s_hawk-cuckoo&oldid=1379246602), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the hodgson's hawk-cuckoo endangered?

The hodgson's hawk-cuckoo is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species. What the categories mean.

How is the hodgson's hawk-cuckoo classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderCuculiformes
  5. familyCuculidae
  6. genusHierococcyx
  7. SpeciesHierococcyx nisicolor (Blyth, 1843)

Synonyms Cuculus fugax nisicolor, Cuculus nisicolor, Cuculus nisicolor nisicolor, Hierococcys fugax fugax, Hierococcys fugax nisicolor, Hierococcyx fugax fugax, Hierococcyx fugax nisicolor

Other names and names in other languages (40)
  • Whistling hawk cuckooEnglish
  • Whistling hawk cuckooEnglish
  • Whistling hawk-cuckooEnglish
  • Whistling hawk-cuckooEnglish
  • وقواق صقري شماليArabic
  • وقاق هودسون البازيArabic
  • Cucut xiuladorCatalan
  • cucut xiulaireCatalan
  • kukačka indočínskáCzech
  • Gwalch-gog swilWelsh
  • Himalaya HøgegøgDanish
  • PfeifkuckuckGerman
  • FleckenbrustfluchtkuckuckGerman
  • fajfa akcipitrokukoloEsperanto
  • Cuco silbadorSpanish
  • viheltäjäkäkiFinnish
  • Coucou de HodgsonFrench
  • kukavica zviždaraCroatian
  • Cuculastore di HodgsonItalian
  • インドシナジュウイチJapanese
  • 작은매사촌Korean
  • Hodžsono vanaginė gegutėLithuanian
  • Náátsʼózídę́ę́ʼ gógooʼii tsįyaalzhahígííNavajo
  • Hodgsons SperwerkoekoekDutch
  • bambusgjøkNorwegian
  • kukułka himalajskaPolish
  • Cuco-de-HodgsonPortuguese
  • cuco-falcão-de-pintas-ruivasPortuguese
  • cuco-gavião-assobiadorPortuguese
  • Свистящая кукушкаRussian
  • kukučka ryšavoprsáSlovak
  • Hodžsonova jastrebasta kukavicaSerbian
  • visselhökgökSwedish
  • hodgsonhökgökSwedish
  • นกคัคคูเหยี่ยวอกแดงThai
  • Hogson Atmaca GuguğuTurkish
  • зозуля індокитайськаUkrainian
  • 棕腹鹰鹃Chinese
  • 棕腹鷹鵑Chinese
  • 棕腹鷹鵑〔侯氏鷹鵑〕Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the hodgson's hawk-cuckoo

Other species in the same genus Hierococcyx.

CompareHodgson's hawk-cuckoo vs Common hawk-cuckooHodgson's hawk-cuckoo vs Large hawk-cuckooHodgson's hawk-cuckoo vs Malayan hawk-cuckooHodgson's hawk-cuckoo vs Moustached hawk-cuckoo

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the hodgson's hawk-cuckoo?

An adult hodgson's hawk-cuckoo weighs 79.7 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Is the hodgson's hawk-cuckoo endangered?

The hodgson's hawk-cuckoo is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the hodgson's hawk-cuckoo?

The hodgson's hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx nisicolor) belongs to the family Cuculidae in the order Cuculiformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx nisicolor). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/hodgsons-hawk-cuckoo

MLA

“Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx nisicolor).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/hodgsons-hawk-cuckoo.

BibTeX
@misc{hodgsons_hawk_cuckoo_2026,
  title = {Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx nisicolor)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/hodgsons-hawk-cuckoo},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}