Lesser cuckoo

The lesser cuckoo (Cuculus poliocephalus) is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae.

Lesser cuckoo
Song recorded in Japan
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Cuculiformes
Family:	Cuculidae
Genus:	Cuculus
Species:	C. poliocephalus
Binomial name
Cuculus poliocephalus Latham, 1790

It is native to East Asia and the Himalayas ; it winters to East Africa and Sri Lanka.

In culture

Lesser cuckoo on a 1971 Japanese stamp

In Japan, the bird is called hototogisu (ホトトギス/杜鵑) and frequently praised in senryu for its song.

It has been celebrated by numerous waka poets since the anthology Kokin wakashū (920).^[2] Sei Shōnagon in her essay The Pillow Book (1002) mentions a trip she and other courtiers mounted on just to hear this bird, and it was expected of them that they would compose poetry on the occasion.^[3] It is also the central image in poem 81 by Tokudaiji Sanesada in the anthology of 100 poems, the Hyakunin Isshu.^[4]

The Japanese haiku magazine Hototogisu takes its name from the bird,^[5] and the magazine's mastermind Masaoka Shiki's adopted pen name, Shiki (子規) also refers to the lesser cuckoo;^[6] shiki corresponds to the Chinese zǐguī (子規), which is an alias for its standard name dùjuān (杜鵑).^[7]

In Chinese, dùjuān is a generic name and the species' common name is xiāodùjuān (小杜鵑).^[7]

In Korean literature, the song of the lesser cuckoo represents the sound of sadness.^{[citation needed]}