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The Common hawk-cuckoo (Cuculus varius) is a bird found in India. Open forests and farms across South Asia. It eats insects and other small invertebrates, reptiles and frogs and fruit. The IUCN Red List lists it as Least Concern.

🏡 Where the Common hawk-cuckoo lives

Open forests and farms across South Asia.

🍽️ What it eats

• 🐛 Insects & bugs80%
• 🦎 Reptiles & frogs10%
• 🍎 Fruit10%

A rough guide to its diet over a year. Source: EltonTraits (Wilman et al. 2014).

Conservation status

Hear the Common hawk-cuckoo

Recorded by Vikrant Prabhulkar (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), xeno-canto XC754344. Trimmed to a few seconds.

Questions about the Common hawk-cuckoo

Where does the Common hawk-cuckoo live?

The Common hawk-cuckoo lives in India. Open forests and farms across South Asia.

What does the Common hawk-cuckoo eat?

insects and other small invertebrates (about 80%), reptiles and frogs (about 10%), fruit (about 10%). These are rough shares of its diet over a year, from the EltonTraits database.

Is the Common hawk-cuckoo endangered?

There are plenty of these birds. Its IUCN Red List category is Least Concern.

More birds from Asia

• White-rumped woodpecker
• Scaly-sided merganser
• Chuuk monarch
• Nilgiri laughingthrush
• Banasura laughingthrush
• Nilgiri blue robin

Sources: IUCN Red List (via Wikidata), EltonTraits 1.0 (Wilman et al. 2014), GBIF sightings for countries, Wikipedia. Last updated 2026-10-19.