Perhaps the archetypal cuckoo in Australia it belongs to the genus Cuculus, the same as the famous Common Cuckoo of cuckoo-clock fame. The Pallid Cuckoo occurs all over Australia and Tasmania. It is primarily a bird of wide open spaces and only rarely ventures into forests. Unlike the Common Cuckoo it doesn't sing "cuckoo" - the main advertising song is a series of short loud whistles rising gradually up the scale, audible from quite a distance, half a kilometre or so. Adult males are primarily grey of different shades - females are mottled brown on the upperparts.

Pallid Cuckoos parasitise mainly birds that build open cup-shaped nests - honeyeaters, robins, woodswallows and flycatchers.