The chestnut-breasted cuckoo (''Cacomantis castaneiventris'') is a species of

cuckoo Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes . The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separat ...

in the family Cuculidae. It is found in Australia,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, and

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are subtropical or tropical dry

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s and subtropical or tropical mangrove forests.

Taxonomy

Three subspecies are currently recognised: * ''Cacomantis castaneiventris arfakianus'' ( Salvadori, 1889) – Parts of western

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

. * ''Cacomantis castaneiventris weiskei'' ( Reichenow, 1900) – Eastern New Guinea. * ''Cacomantis castaneiventris castaneiventris'' ( Gould, 1867) –

Aru Islands The Aru Islands Regency ( id, Kabupaten Kepulauan Aru) is a group of about 95 low-lying islands in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia. It also forms a regency of Maluku Province, with a land area of . At the 2011 Census the Regency had a p ...

and the

Cape York Peninsula Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth’s last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación ...

in Australia.

Description

The chestnut-breasted cuckoo is about long. Adults have a dark slaty grey-blue head, back and wings, deep rufous breast and underparts and barred black and white tail. Immatures are dull greyish cinnamon on the head and wings, grading to dull mid brown on the outer parts of the wings, and pale buff or cinnamon on the breast and underparts. The tail is barred mid brown and white. Both adults and immatures have a yellow orbital eye ring. The chestnut-breasted cuckoo is slightly smaller than the similar brush cuckoo ('' C. variolosus'') and fan-tailed cuckoo ('' C. flabelliformis''), but the breast and underparts of the adult chestnut-breasted cuckoo is much darker.

References

chestnut-breasted cuckoo Birds of New Guinea Birds of Cape York Peninsula chestnut-breasted cuckoo Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Cuculiformes-stub