Great Spotted Cuckoo
Clamator glandarius
Distinctive, boldly patterned cuckoo with a spiffy crest and white-spotted wings. Adult has a gray crest and gray-brown back. Juveniles are even more contrasting, with a rusty wing panel and black crest and back. Typically restless, making short flights often and hopping on the ground with tail raised. A nest parasite of corvids (crows, jays, and relatives). Found in semiarid open woodland and dry savannas. Noisy, often giving "krree krree krree" calls.
Identification
This species is slightly larger than the common cuckoo at 35–39 cm (14–15 in) in length, but looks much larger with its broad wings and long narrow tail. The adult is grey above with a slender body, long tail and strong legs. It has a grey cap, grey wings, a yellowish face and upper breast, and white underparts. Sexes are similar. The juveniles have blackish upperparts and cap, and chestnut primary wing feathers. This species has a magpie-like flight.<p>It is a bird of warm open country with trees. It feeds on insects, spiders, small reptiles and hairy caterpillars, which are distasteful to many birds.<p>The great spotted cuckoo's call is a loud cher-cher-kri-kri and variations.
Taxonomy
In 1747 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the great spotted cuckoo in the second volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. He used the English name "The Great Spotted Cuckow". Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a specimen that had been shot in Gibraltar and sent to the English naturalist Mark Catesby in London. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the great spotted cuckoo with the other cuckoos in the genus Cuculus. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Cuculus glandarius and cited Edwards' work. The great spotted cuckoo is now placed in the genus Clamator that was introduced by German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1829. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. The genus name Clamator is Latin for "shouter" from clamare, "to shout". The specific epithet glandarius is Latin meaning "of acorns".
- Scientific name
- Clamator glandarius
- Authority
- (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Order
- Cuculiformes
- Family
- Cuculidae
- Genus
- Clamator
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Behavior
Migration pattern: Complete migrants.
Conservation
Population trend: stable.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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