biology

Moustached hawk-cuckoo

Moustached hawk-cuckoo is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Moustached hawk-cuckoo rather than just read about it. In short: The moustached hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx vagans) is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand.

Key takeaways

Moustached hawk-cuckoo belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Moustached hawk-cuckoo to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Moustached hawk-cuckoo from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The moustached hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx vagans) is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand. Its natural habitat is evergreen and secondary forests. Threatened by habitat loss, it has been assessed as a near-threatened species.

Taxonomy Salomon Müller described the species in 1845, as Cuculus vagans. The species is monotypic.

Distribution and habitat The moustached hawk-cuckoo is found in southern Myanmar, Thailand, southern Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and Kalimantan, Sumatra and Java of Indonesia. Its habitat is evergreen and secondary forests and forest edges, especially on hills and in alluvial and bamboo forests. It occurs at elevations up to 915 m (3,002 ft).

Description The moustached hawk-cuckoo is 25–30 cm (9.8–11.8 in) long, and it weighs about 58–63 g (2.0–2.2 oz). The crown and nape are grey. The ear coverts are white, and there is a blackish moustache. The back is brown, and the tail has brown bands and a buffy or white tip. The flight feathers have buffy bars. The underparts are creamy-white, with blackish streaks. The eye is dark brown or grey, with a yellow eye-ring around it. The beak is black, and the feet are orange-yellow. The juvenile bird's back and wings are blackish, and it has black streaks on its breast. The fledgling also has a moustache.

Behaviour This cuckoo eats insects and small fruits. It has been seen in mixed-species foraging flocks. It is usually found in thick canopy. Males sing at fixed locations in the canopy, its call being chu-chu or kang-koh repeated every two seconds. It also gives a whistling peu peu that becomes hi-hi and then stops. It has been observed parasitising Abbott's babbler and the rufous-winged philentoma. In mainland Southeast Asia, the breeding season is June to August.

Status The species is threatened by rapid habitat loss caused by logging, land conversion and forest fires. The population is probably declining at a moderately rapid rate because it can live in secondary forests. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as a near-threatened species.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Moustached hawk-cuckoo

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Moustached hawk-cuckoo claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Moustached hawk-cuckoo before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Moustached hawk-cuckoo ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Moustached hawk-cuckoo

In research: Moustached hawk-cuckoo appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Moustached hawk-cuckoo in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Moustached hawk-cuckoo is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Birds described in 1845, Birds of Southeast Asia, Hierococcyx, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Moustached hawk-cuckoo outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Moustached hawk-cuckoo in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Moustached hawk-cuckoo means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Moustached hawk-cuckoo out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Moustached hawk-cuckoo in simple terms?

The moustached hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx vagans) is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand.

Why does Moustached hawk-cuckoo matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Moustached hawk-cuckoo?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Moustached hawk-cuckoo.