African Cuckoo

Overview

The African cuckoo, or African grey cuckoo (Cuculus gularis), is a medium-sized species of cuckoo found throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. It is a fairly common bird that migrates within the continent, generally arriving and breeding in a locality during the rainy season.

Identification

• Dark grey head, upper parts, and wings with a pale grey throat and breast.
• White belly barred with dark grey, and a long dark grey tail with dark barring and a white tip.
• Yellow beak tipped with black or horn, and yellowish legs and feet.
• Male eye is yellow, while the female eye is light brown.
• Male call is a "coo-coo" with the second note higher and louder, while the female utters a bubbling "Kwik-kwik-kwik".

Habitat

The African cuckoo inhabits savannah with scattered acacia trees and open woodland, avoiding dense forest and arid regions. Its range covers much of Sub-Saharan Africa, including countries from Angola and Benin to South Africa and Tanzania.

Diet

This species feeds on both hairy and smooth caterpillars, as well as other insects such as beetles and winged termites. It forages through foliage and probes cattle dung, perching almost vertically while feeding.

Did you know?

As a brood parasite, the female lays her eggs in the nests of other species, such as the yellow-billed shrike or fork-tailed drongo, with the cuckoo chick ejecting any other eggs or nestlings it encounters. In Zambia, fork-tailed drongos were found to reject African cuckoo eggs at a rate as high as 93.7%.