Species Cuculus optatus Gould, 1845

Museums

Regional Maps

• Cuculus optatus Gould, J. 1845. In Proceedings of meeting of Zoological Society of London, March 25, 1845. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1845: 18-20 [published Apr.] [18] [because the account of this form in Gould, J. 1848. The Birds of Australia. London : J. Gould Vol. 4 104 pls pp. (Pt 21, Dec. 1845) appeared only eight months after original publication, it is likely that the material described and figured there on pl. 84, and deposited in ANSP, is syntypic, see Stone, W. in Stone, W. & Mathews, G.M. 1913. A list of the species of Australian birds described by John Gould, with the location of the type-specimens. Austral Avian Records 1: 129–180, cf. Meyer de Schauensee, R. 1957. On some avian types, principally Gould's, in the collection of the Academy. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 109: 123–246; from wing measurements of the lectotype (male) provided later by Stone, Junge, G.C.A. 1937. Further notes on the birds of Simalur. Temminckia 2: 197–202 referred optatus Gould, 1845 to the synonymy of nominotypical C. saturatus Hodgson, 1843, with the result that the later name horsfieldi Moore, 1857 (type locality: Java) has often been used subspecifically for the large-sized migratory Australian population, see Junge, G.C.A. 1937. Further notes on the birds of Simalur. Temminckia 2: 197–202; Peters, J.L. 1940. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 4 xii 291 pp.; Vaurie, C. 1965. The Birds of the Palaearctic Fauna A systematic reference. Non-Passeriformes. London : H.F. & G. Witherby xx 763 pp.; cf. Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia Pt 1 Non-passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp.; nevertheless Stone's wing measurement is anomalously small for a male, even for nominotypical saturatus, and conflicts with Gould's of 7 3/4 inches in the protologue, itself matching those of Australian populations and horsfieldi Moore, 1857, see data in Roselaar, C.S. in Cramp, S. (ed.) 1985. Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa The Birds of the Western Palaearctic. Oxford : Oxford University Press Vol. 4 960 pp. 98 pls (422)—accordingly, optatus Gould, 1845 is used here as the senior name for this form; the names Cuculus assimilis Brehm, 1843 and, by the measurements of its lectotype, C. canoroides S. Müller, 1845 also apply to this form, cf. Junge, G.C.A. 1937. Further notes on the birds of Simalur. Temminckia 2: 197–202—nevertheless, the latter is junior to optatus Gould, Apr. 1845 under ICZN Art. 21(c) and the former is not taken up for reasons detailed above under Cuculus saturatus Hodgson, 1843 (q.v.); Cuculus bubu Dybowski, 1868, nom. nud. as synonym of C. optatus Gould, 1845 according to Mathews, G.M. 1927. Systema Avium Australasianarum. A systematic list of the birds of the Australasian region. London : British Ornithologists' Union Pt 1 iv 426 pp., is excluded here because it is not based on Australian material].

  Type data:

   Lectotype ANSP 19980 ♂ adult (Verreaux cat. no. 1600), Port Essington, Cobourg Peninsula, NT (as Port Essington, Australia).
  Paralectotype(s) whereabouts unknown (not traced).

  Subsequent designation references:

  Stone, W. in Stone, W. & Mathews, G.M. 1913. A list of the species of Australian birds described by John Gould, with the location of the type-specimens. Austral Avian Records 1: 129-180 [Date published 28 Feb 1913] (cf. <0054>).
• Cuculus cantor Cabanis, J. & Heine, F. 1863. Museum Heineanum. Verzeichniss der ornithologischen Sammlung des Oberamtmann Ferdinand Heine auf Gut St. Burchard vor Halberstadt. Halberstadt : R. Frantz Part 4 (1) 229 pp. [publication dated as 1862–1863] [34] [quoted 'ex Illiger', reference not traced, and published without description in synonymy of Cuculus optatus Gould, 1845—unavailable under ICZN Art. 11(e)].
• Cuculus optatus belli Mathews, G.M. 1916. In Proceedings of meeting of British Ornithologists' Club, May 10, 1916. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 36: 82-83 [83] [for identification of type series and type locality, see Hartert, E. 1928. Types of birds in the Tring Museum. C. Additional and overlooked types. Novitates Zoologicae 34: 189–230; Greenway, J.C. 1978. Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Pt 2. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 161: 1–306; specification by Hartert, E. 1928. Types of birds in the Tring Museum. C. Additional and overlooked types. Novitates Zoologicae 34: 189–230 of specimen R. Bell 37 as type effects lectotypification under ICZN Art. 74b cf. Greenway, J.C. 1978. Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Pt 2. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 161: 1–306].

  Type data:

   Lectotype AMNH 625154 ♂ adult (presumably Roy Bell coll. no. 37 in G.M. Mathews coll. no. unspecified; institution uncertain), Lord Howe Is.
  Paralectotype(s) AMNH 625157–625159 ♂; AMNH 625155–625156 ♀; AMNH 625162 ♂; AMNH 625160–625161 ♀; AMNH 625163 ♀.

  Subsequent designation references:

  Hartert, E. 1928. Types of birds in the Tring Museum. C. Additional and overlooked types. Novitates Zoologicae 34: 189-230.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Mason, I.J. in Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1997. Aves (Columbidae to Coraciidae). In, Houston, W.W.K. & Wells, A. (eds). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing, Australia Vol. 37.2 xiii 440 pp. [227] (based on Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia Pt 1 Non-passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp.)

Introduction

Often treated as a subspecies of C. saturata but raised to full species following Christidis and Boles (2008: 161), but see their discussion.

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Coastal and subcoastal N Australia, south to Pilbara (Dampier), WA, in west and region of Sydney, NSW, in east, straggling there to Shoalhaven River and Narooma—and inland to much of Kimberley Division, WA, Arnhem Land, NT, and Cape York Peninsula and Great Dividing Range (Ravenshoe, lower Mitchell and Lynd Rivers, Richmond, Mitchell, and Toowoomba, QLD, and Cataract and Apsley Rivers, NSW)—also off-shore islands: Melville-Bathurst, Groote Eylandt, Sir Edward Pellew group, inshore islands off E QLD, Lord Howe Is.—vagrant on Christmas Is. (subsp.?).

IBRA and IMCRA regions

drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones

IBRA

NSW, NT, Qld, SA, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Arnhem (CA), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Finke (FIN), Gascoyne (GAS), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Murchison (MUR), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Pilbara (PIL), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Stony Plains (STP), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Wet Tropics (WT), Yalgoo (YAL)

IMCRA

Lord Howe Province (14), Norfolk Island Province (21), Christmas Island Province (23)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Lord Howe Island
  • New South Wales: SE coastal
  • Norfolk Island
  • Northern Territory: N Gulf, N coastal
  • Queensland: N Gulf, NE coastal
  • South Australia: Lake Eyre basin
  • Western Australia: N coastal, NW coastal

Oriental Region

• Christmas Island (Aust. Terr.)

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, arthropod-feeder, closed forest, diurnal, gregarious, low woodland, mangrove, migratory, open forest, tall forest, volant, woodland.

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder, sexually dimorphic (slight), solitary or congregates in feeding groups in mid and upper stage of forest and woodland, feeds by perch-and-pounce sallying mainly on caterpillars, beetles, phasmids and cicadas, flies swiftly and directly in falcon-like manner, commonly silent, non-breeding summer migrant from northern E Palaearctic, arrives in Nov.-Dec. and leaves Apr.-May, winters from India through Malesian archipelagos to Papuasia and Australia, vagrant to New Zealand.

General References

Bravery, J.A. 1967. Field notes on the Oriental Cuckoo, Cuculus saturatus. The Emu 66: 267-271 (behaviour)

Christidis, L. & Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing 288 pp. [161]

Coates, B.J. 1985. The Birds of Papua New Guinea, including the Bismarck Archipelago and Bougainville. Non-Passerines. Alderley, Qld : Dove Publications Vol. 1 464 pp. 493 pls. (morphology, nidification, voice, taxonomy)

Cramp, S. (ed.) 1985. Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The Birds of the Western Palaearctic. Oxford : Oxford University Press Vol. 4 960 pp. 98 pls. [417-422] (general biology)

Mason, I.J. in Schodde, R. & Tidemann, S.C. (consultant eds) 1986. Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds. Sydney : Reader's Digest 639 pp. (morphology, nidification, voice, distribution)

Mees, G.F. 1979. Die Nachweise von Cuculus canorus L. im indo-australischen Raum. Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen Museum in Berlin 55: 127-134 (regional misidentification with Cuculus canorus Linnaeus, 1758)

Zillman, E.E. 1965. Observations on the Oriental Cuckoo at Gin Gin, Queensland. Australian Bird Watcher 2: 148-151 (behaviour)

History of changes