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Jacobin Cuckoo, Clamator jacobinus, นกคัคคูขาวดำ

The Jacobin Cuckoo, Pied Cuckoo, or Pied Crested Cuckoo (Clamator jacobinus) is a member of the cuckoo order of birds that is found in Africa and Asia. It is partially migratory and in India, it has been considered a harbinger of the monsoon rains due to the timing of its arrival.

It has been associated with a bird in Indian mythology and poetry, known as the chatak (Sanskrit: चातक) represented as a bird with a beak on its head that waits for rains to quench its thirst.

Distribution and habitat
The species is distributed south of the Sahara in Africa and south of the Himalayas in India. Also found in Sri Lanka and parts of Myanmar. Within Africa, there are movements of the species although they are resident in tropical Africa. The east African population is migratory and moves over southern Arabia into India during April.

The habitat of the species is mainly in thorny, dry scrub or open woodland avoiding areas of dense forest or extremely dry environments.

Jacobin Cuckoo, Clamator jacobinus, นกคัคคูขาวดำ
Dark green - year round
Yellow - summer only
Blue - winter
Cream - passage only
By L. Shyamal - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7103782

Jacobin Cuckoo

Jacobin Cuckoo
Range map from www.oiseaux.net - Ornithological Portal Oiseaux.net
www.oiseaux.net is one of those MUST visit pages if you're in to bird watching. You can find just about everything there


Taxonomy
The Jacobin Cuckoo was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux in 1780. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle. This was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.

Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Pelecanus leucogaster in his catalogue of the Planche Enluminées. The type locality is the Coromandel Coast of southeast India.

The current genus Clamator was erected by German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1829 with the great spotted cuckoo (Clamator glandarius) as the type species. The name is the Latin word for "shouter" from clamare, "to shout".

The specific epithet jacobinus and the English name Jacobin refer to the pied plumage which resembles the black and white garments of monks belonging to the Dominican Order. In France Dominicans were known as "Jacobins".

The three subspecies with their breeding ranges are:

• C. j. serratus (Sparrman, 1786) – South Africa, southern Zambia

• C. j. pica (Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833) – Africa south of the Sahara to north Zambia and Malawi, northwest India to Nepal and Myanmar

• C. j. jacobinus (Boddaert, 1783) – south India, Sri Lanka, south Myanmar


Description
In flight, the white wing patches and tail edges are prominent

This medium-sized, slim black and white cuckoo with a crest is distinctive. The white wing patch on the black wing and the pattern make it unmistakable even in flight. They are very vocal during the breeding season.

Length: 34 cm
Wingspan: cm
Weight: 66-72 g
Longevity:
Distinctive Feature
• White patch on black wings and white tips to black tail
Similar Species


From opus at www.birdforum.net


The call is a ringing series of whistling notes "piu-piu" with the calls of the nominate form more rapid and slightly mellower.

Listen to the Jacobin Cuckoo


In India the subspecies serratus (Sparrman, 1786) is a summer breeding visitor to northern India and is believed to migrate to southern Africa. This is larger and longer winged than the nominate subspecies found in the southern peninsular region and Sri Lanka is said to be a local migrant. No ringing evidence exists to support the actual migration to Africa.

In Africa, subspecies serratus and pica (Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833) show two phases, a pied phase with white or whitish below and a black phase where the only white is on the wing patch. Mating appears to be assortative, with pied phase males pairing with pied phase females.

An all-rufous color phase has been noted in Central Africa. There is lack of clarity on the migration and plumage variation involved. Subspecies pica has been said to be the form that migrates between Africa and India however Rasmussen & Anderton (2005) suggest serratus as being the valid name for the Afro-Indian migrants.

In the past some other African subspecies have been suggested such as hypopinarus from South Africa and caroli from the Gabon.

Behaviour and ecology
In the breeding season, birds call from prominent perches and chase each other with slow wing-beats and pigeon like clapping flight. Courtship feeding has been observed in Africa. The species is a brood parasite and in India the host is mainly species of babblers in the genus Turdoides. The colour of the eggs matches those of the host, typically turquoise blue.

The eggs are slightly larger than those of the common babbler (T. caudatus) or the jungle babbler (T. striata). Other hosts include the red-vented bulbul, and the eggs laid are then mostly white.[20] Eggs are laid hurriedly in the morning into the nest of the host often dropped from while the bird perches on the rim of the nest and over the host eggs often resulting in the cracking of one or more host eggs.

In Africa, the males distract the host while the female lays the egg. Multiple eggs may be laid in the nest of a host and two young cuckoos were found to fledge successfully in several occasions. In Africa, the hosts include Pycnonotus barbatus, Pycnonotus somaliensis, P. capensis, Turdoides fulvus, Turdoides rubiginosus, Lanius collaris, Andropadus importunus, Terpsiphone viridis, Dicrurus adsimilis and a few other species.

Babblers in the genus Turdoides are communal breeders and cuckoo chick are raised by several members of the group. A pied cuckoo chick was observed to be fed by four jungle babblers.

The skin of young birds darkens form pink to purplish brown within two days of hatching. The mouth linking is red with yellow gape flanges. Unlike some cuckoos, nestlings do not evict the eggs of the host from the nest although they claim most of the parental attention and food resulting sometimes, in the starvation of host nestlings.

These cuckoos feed on insects including hairy caterpillars that are picked up from near or on the ground. Caterpillars are pressed from end to end to remove the guts before they are swallowed. They sometimes feed on fruits.

In culture
This species is widely mentioned in ancient Indian poetry as the chātak. According to Indian mythology it has a beak atop its head and it thirsts for the rains. The poet Kalidasa used it in his "Meghadoota" as a metaphor for deep yearning and this tradition continues in literary works. Satya Churn Law, however noted that in Bengal, the bird associated with the "chatak" of Sanskrit was the Common Iora unlike the Jacobin Cuckoo suggested by European orientalists.

He further noted that a captive iora that he kept drank water only from dew and spray picked up from plant leaves suggesting that it may have been the basis for the idea that the "chatak" only drank raindrops. To compound the issues with matching vernacular names, it has been pointed out that in Bengal chātak also refers to skylarks (which are also crested).

Conservation status
Jacobin Cuckoo, Clamator jacobinus, นกคัคคูขาวดำ
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2.
International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.



From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

www.birdforum.net


Sighted: (Date of first photo that I could use) 13th of February 2016
Location: Phetchaburi Rice Fields


Thank's to Nick Upton at www.thaibirding.com for HOT birding tip. His web page is a ONE STOP for everything you need for bird watching in Thailand. There are reviews of the birding sites with maps and information.

And if you like Nick Upton's web page you will also like www.norththailandbirding.com I have used this page together with Nick Upton's page when planning my birding tours. Excellent reviews and information about the birding sites.

I also got the Thai names of the birds from www.norththailandbirding.com. There is a bird check list with all the names in English and Thai. And of course also the Scientific Name. Down load the birdlist in Microsoft Excel format at www.norththailandbirding.com Or down load the Excel sheet by clicking HERE

And my new aid, maybe, and I say maybe the best aid. I brought my mobile phone as my SIM card have stopped working and I tried to get it to work again so I can use the internet. Thus I had my phone in my pocket on my first game drive in Jim Corbett National Park.

We saw a bird and I asked my Guide and the driver if they had a pen and a paper as I had forgot my pen and paper in my room. I remembered my LG phone and I recorded the name. And thus I will always bring my phone. Writing the name in the car and I have found more than once that it can be hard to read what I had wrote when I'm back in my room.

So now I always have my mobile in my pocket and it has been a great help. And from November 2018 I use eBird. Bird watching in U.A.E and Oman and my guide in Dubai recommended eBird and I have used the app since then and I note every bird I can identify in my eBird app.

Jacobin Cuckoo, Clamator jacobinus, นกคัคคูขาวดำ
Jacobin Cuckoo - นกคัคคูขาวดำ - 13 February 2016 - Phetchaburi Rice Fields

Jacobin Cuckoo, Clamator jacobinus, นกคัคคูขาวดำ
Jacobin Cuckoo - นกคัคคูขาวดำ - 13 February 2016 - Phetchaburi Rice Fields



PLEASE! If I have made any mistakes identifying any bird, PLEASE let me know on my guestbook



       
                  



                                       
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