Whistling Hawk-Cuckoo (Hierococcyx nisicolor)

Whistling Hawk-Cuckoo Hierococcyx nisicolor

Current view: Data table and detailed info

Taxonomy

Taxonomic note
Hierococcyx fugax, H. nisicolor, H. pectoralis and H. hyperythrus (del Hoyo and Collar 2014) were previously placed in the genus Cuculus and lumped as C. fugax following Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993).

Taxonomic source(s)
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.
King, B. F. 2002. The Hierococcyx fugax, Hodgson's Hawk Cuckoo, complex. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 122: 74-80.

IUCN Red List criteria met and history

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2024	Least Concern
2016	Least Concern
2014	Least Concern
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Species attributes

Migratory status	full migrant	Forest dependency	medium
Land-mass type		Average mass	80 g

Range

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	3,980,000 km²
Extent of Occurrence (non-breeding)	7,720,000 km²
Severely fragmented?	no	-

Population

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	unknown	-	-	-
Population trend	decreasing	-	suspected	-
Generation length	4.31 years	-	-	-

Population justification: The global population size has not been quantified, but the species is reported to be uncommon to rare throughout its range (del Hoyo et al. 1997). This species is considered to have a medium dependency on forest habitat, and tree cover is estimated to have declined by 10.3% within its mapped range over the past three generations (Global Forest Watch 2022, using Hansen et al. [2013] data and methods disclosed therein). Therefore, as a precautionary measure, it is tentatively suspected that this loss of cover may have led to a decline of between 1-19% in the species' population size over the same time frame.

Trend justification: .

Country/territory distribution

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor
Bangladesh	presence uncertain	uncertain
Bhutan	extant	native		yes
Cambodia	extant	native			yes
China (mainland)	extant	native	yes
India	extant	native		yes
Indonesia	extant	native			yes
Laos	extant	native	yes
Malaysia	extant	native			yes
Myanmar	extant	native	yes
Nepal	extant	native		yes
Singapore	extant	native			yes
Thailand	extant	native	yes
Vietnam	extant	native	yes

Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitats & altitude

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Plantations	suitable	breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Subtropical/Tropical Heavily Degraded Former Forest	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland	suitable	non-breeding
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland	suitable	breeding
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Montane	suitable	resident
Forest	Temperate	suitable	non-breeding
Forest	Temperate	suitable	breeding
Altitude	0 - 2800 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Whistling Hawk-Cuckoo Hierococcyx nisicolor. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/whistling-hawk-cuckoo-hierococcyx-nisicolor on 22/11/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 22/11/2024.