Black Cuckoo
Cuculus clamosus
Well wooded and suburban areas. Perches and calls in same tree for long periods. Diagnostic call ‘I’m so SICK’.
Cuckoos
LC
Not Endemic
Description
Common summer resident. Entirely black, but may show faint barring below (especially female). Immature more blackish brown. Male utters a much-repeated, monotonous call ‘whoo whoo whee’, rising on the last syllable, likened to ‘I’m so sick’; female has an excitable-sounding ‘wind-up’ call ‘yow-yow-yow-yow-yow-yow’, reaching a crescendo and dying away. Occurs singly in any well-wooded region, including suburbia. Perches in one place for long periods when calling. Parasitises boubou shrikes, including the [Crimson-breasted Shrike].
Quick Facts
Size
30 cm - M
Names
A: Swartkoekoek
Z: isigqonhamithintshebe
Ss: Lehopoho Le Lentsho
G: Schwarzkuckuck
Bird Family
Cuckoos are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other birds, and the majority are absent from southern Africa during the period March-September. The related coucals are larger, more robust and mainly sedentary birds that build their own nests and rear young in the conventional manner.
Distribution
Gallery
Behaviour
Breeding
Habitat
