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Bird

Greater Coucal

Centropus sinensis

हिन्दी: महोख

IUCN: Least Concern
Greater Coucal (Centropus sinensis) photographed by Devendra Bhardwaj

Image: Devendra Bhardwaj · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0 · Vaishali Nagar, Jaipur, Rajasthan · Resized

Scientific name
Centropus sinensis
Hindi name
महोख
Family
Cuculidae, order Cuculiformes
Group
Bird
Conservation status
Least Concern

The copper-winged bird with a deep booming call.

  • Spot it Black body, chestnut wings and red eyes.
  • Home Thick scrub, forest edges and gardens.
  • Food web Eats insects, lizards and eggs; builds its own nest.
  • Why it matters Hunts insects, lizards and eggs, balancing small-animal numbers, and is itself prey for larger birds.

Read more: Greater coucal on Wikipedia

Sources and credits

Records and field notes

  • RajasthanDevendra Bhardwaj has 5 verified records of this species on iNaturalist, between 2015 and 2024, in Jaipur.[20]

Sources

  1. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (species pages linked on each entry) (database). Global conservation status. Every species page was opened.
  2. Devendra Bhardwaj. iNaturalist observations and notes, with place and date (inaturalist.org/people/devendrabhardwaj) (field record). The observer's own dated records and notes, with places. Statements in his notes are his own and were not independently checked by KJVF.
  3. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF species data (family, order, Hindi names, IUCN category) (database). Open biodiversity data. Used for classification, Hindi common names and the IUCN category where one is given.
  4. Wikidata (Hindi labels for species) (database). Open data, used for Hindi common names.
  5. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (opening lines of each species article, CC BY-SA 4.0). The link on each entry goes to the article (reference). Not peer reviewed. Only the opening description is used, and statements about origin or medicinal use are left out.
  6. Short introductions and key points written with AI help (Google Gemini and Claude) and checked against GBIF where possible (reference). AI-assisted text for general readers. Please check important details before relying on them.

The tag before each record shows the place it was checked for.

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