Andaman Coucal

The Andaman coucal, or brown coucal, is a large non-parasitic cuckoo, males about 38–40 cm long and females somewhat larger at 40–42 cm. It looks structurally like the greater coucal but the plumage is fawn brown rather than black with a blue-purple sheen, with a chestnut rear mantle and wings, a pale tawny-brown head, and a mantle and breast grading from pale to dark brown towards the belly and vent. It is sometimes treated as a subspecies of the greater coucal (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is found mainly in forest and thickly covered gardens in the Andamans and on Coco and Table Islands. It breeds during the monsoon, from May to July, making a nest of twigs, grass and leaves well above the ground in a tree, with two or three eggs. The song is a long series of very deep, resonant hoop notes, like the greater coucal's, and it feeds on insects, small frogs, crabs and lizards. SoIB 2023 rates it a Moderate conservation priority, an island endemic with a Restricted range of about 5,100 km² (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).