The Fan-tailed Cuckoo is distributed in eastern and south-eastern Australia including Tasmania and in south-west Western Australia. It is also found in New Guinea and several islands as far as Fiji. See the distribution map at Birdlife International.

It is grey above with a grey throat, buff to rufous breast and paler belly. The tail has white bars on either side and, apparently, is infrequently fanned. It does, however have "notching" on the edges of the tail as can be seen in photo 3. The eye is brown and the eye-ring is yellow.