Chestnut-winged Cuckoo

Chestnut-winged Cuckoo (Clamator coromandus) is a crested cuckoo with glossy black upperparts, chestnut wings, rufous throat, white nape band and long graduated tail. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It inhabits wooded country, eats insects and reproduces as a brood parasite before migrating south from northern breeding areas. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. The Korean vertebrate catalogue used for this guide records the species in South Korea (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Korea occurrence records).