Lesser cuckoo

Weight

40 g – 53.9 g

Length

Not recorded

Lifespan

Not recorded

Diet

Invertivore

Main food

Not recorded

Habitat

forest

Young per litter or clutch

Not recorded

Lifestyle

Perching

Migration

Migratory

Conservation status

Not recorded

Countries on record

Not recorded

Not recorded

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

1. kingdomAnimalia
2. phylumChordata
3. classAves
4. orderCuculiformes
5. familyCuculidae
6. genusCuculus
7. SpeciesCuculus poliocephalus Latham, 1790

Synonyms Cuculus assimilis, Cuculus bartlettii, Cuculus himalayanus, Cuculus himalayanus bharovus, Cuculus intermedius, Cuculus poliocephalus poliocephalus, Cuculus tamsuicus, Multivoculus poliocephalus

Catalogue of Life

LC, Least Concern

Common cuckoo

Cuculus canorus

Cuculidae

O

Oriental cuckoo

Cuculus saturatus

CuculidaeNo free photo yet

I

Indian cuckoo

Cuculus micropterus

CuculidaeNo free photo yet

A

African cuckoo

Cuculus gularis

CuculidaeNo free photo yet

O

Oriental cuckoo

Cuculus optatus

CuculidaeNo free photo yet

B

Black cuckoo

Cuculus clamosus

CuculidaeNo free photo yet

CompareLesser cuckoo vs Common cuckooLesser cuckoo vs Oriental cuckooLesser cuckoo vs Indian cuckooLesser cuckoo vs African cuckoo

• An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
  Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
• AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
  Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5
• AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
  Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7
• Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
  Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
• Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
  Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
• EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
  Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1
• Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
• Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

@misc{lesser_cuckoo_2026,
  title = {Lesser cuckoo (Cuculus poliocephalus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/lesser-cuckoo},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}