Native to north-eastern Australia, Indonesia and New Guinea lowland tropical moist rainforests.

- - Photo by Alex Pawlow

They are a small (up to around 15cm) member of the cuckoo family and feed mainly on insects and larvae.

As with most cuckoos, they will lay their eggs in other birds nests, usually those with closed in "dome" nests, like gerygones, wrens and thornbills. They usually lay one egg per host nest.