Cuckoos and Allies

The gallery features images from the Cuckoos (Cuculidae) family which has five subfamilies: Old-World Cuckoos including Koels, Coucals, Malkohas and Anis.

Cuckoos, Koels, Coucals, Malkohas and Anis

[foogallery id=”4021″]

Cuckoos, Koels, Coucals, Malkohas and Anis Notes

All featured species are ‘Red List 2019’ assessed as ‘Least Concern’. These small to medium-sized arboreal birds rarely exhibit plumage dimorphism; an exception is the koels. And about one-third of the cuckoo family are brood parasites, laying their eggs in other birds’ nests. Malkohas and others in the Phaenicophaeinae subfamily are non-parasitic nest-building cuckoos that raise their young.

Singapore has eighteen resident or migrant species of cuckoos. On my recent visit to Singapore, I photographed another three, Chestnut-winged Cuckoo, Large Hawk-Cuckoo and Plaintive Cuckoo, bringing my Singapore image list to seven about half of those on my world list.

Cuckoo Taxonomy

Cuckoos (Cuculiformes) order has one family; Cuckoos (Cuculidae) which splits into five subfamilies, three of which feature in the album:
(a) Cuculinae (Cuckoos) with images from two of three tribes displayed: (i) Cuculini (Old World Parasitic Cuckoos), and (ii) Phaenicophaeini (Malkohas, American Cuckoos),
(b) Centropodinae (Coucals),
(c) Crotophaginae (Anis).