Red-chested Cuckoo
Cuculus solitarius
A mostly grayish cuckoo with banding below, including a broad rusty band across the upper breast. The immature has barred underparts and a charcoal back, throat, and breast. It can be very secretive, and when it flies fast on pointed wings, it strongly resembles a small goshawk. Its brood-parasite hosts include wagtails, robin-chats, and thrushes. Resident and (in the southern parts of its range) migrant. Its presence is most often evidenced by its incessant and loud three-note “Pete-my-wife” song.
Identification
The red-chested cuckoo is a medium-size cuckoo about 31 cm (12.2 in) in length. The male has slate-grey upper parts, pale grey throat and sides of head and dark grey tail tipped with white. The breast is rufous or cinnamon, often with barring, and the belly is creamy-white or pale buff. The female is similar but the colour of the breast is duller and with variable amounts of barring.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Cuculus solitarius
- Authority
- Stephens, 1815
- Order
- Cuculiformes
- Family
- Cuculidae
- Genus
- Cuculus
Range and habitat
It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In Southern Africa it is a common breeding migrant, found throughout the area except for the drier west. The preferred habitats for the red-chested cuckoo are woodlands. The red-chested cuckoo is normally seen by itself rather than in the company of birds of the same species.
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Behavior
It is usually solitary and highly vocal and lives on forests and plantations. It eats insects including hairy caterpillars, spiders, centipedes, millipedes, slugs, snails, small vertebrates and berries.<p>The red-chested cuckoo takes on more than a single mate (it is polygamous). The nesting habit of red-chested cuckoo is to use the nest of another bird (brood parasitism). About fifteen different species of small bird are parasitised but the most common hosts are the Cape robin-chat (Cossypha caffra), the Cape wagtail (Motacilla capensis) and the white-throated robin-chat (Cossypha humeralis).The surrogate family then raise the chick. The bird lays eggs which are brown in colour and number between 20 eggs per season in different nests. Like other cuckoos, the red-chested cuckoo lays its eggs in other birds’ nests, leaving the parasitized birds to care for the cuckoo chicks, which they do, believing it is their own offspring.
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Rubeho Akalat
Sheppardia aurantiithorax
A rather small, demure understory denizen resembling a cross between a robin and a flycatcher. Mostly dull brown above, with an olive-brown crown and richer orange-brown underparts. Juvenile is more mottled. A highly local bird, found singly and in pairs in the understory of primary and secondary montane forest in a narrow range along the Rubeho and Ukaguru (and possibly Uluguru) mountains escarpment between 1800 and 2200 meters. Sits for long periods, sallying to catch insect prey, or forages on the ground, often in the company of ants and other ant-following birds. Sings a simple high-pitched “tsoot-tseeet-soo-seeet” and other similar songs. Calls include an invariable piping “wheet” uttered once a second. Alarm call is a grating, ticking “drrrzzt, drrrt, drrrt.” May be mistaken for a flycatcher, but its furtive nature and preference for thick understory are unique within its range.
Tree Pipit
Anthus trivialis
Slender and streaked pipit. Feeds on the ground like other pipits, but perches readily in trees or bushes when singing, or alights in tree at end of parachuting song flight. As the name suggests, usually associated with trees (on breeding grounds), but also found in agricultural areas and grassy scrub in winter. All pipits look rather similar and are best identified to species by combination of habitat and voice: Tree Pipit call a high, shrill, buzzy "tzzz"; song more melodic and varied than Meadow Pipit song.
Rook
Corvus frugilegus
Large, glossy black crow. Adult is easily passed off as another crow species unless you see the diagnostic pale patch at the base of the bill. Juvenile lacks a pale bill base and is very similar to Carrion Crow, but bill is a little more tapered; pale bill base develops late in its first winter. Inhabits farmland and other semiopen areas with hedges and groups of tall trees, where nests in rookeries. Forages on ground, usually in flocks, and associates readily with crows and jackdaws. Rook calls are higher pitched and less rolling than other crow calls.
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