Red-chested cuckoo

Last updated

Red-chested cuckoo
024 Red-chested cuckoo at Kibale forest National Park Photo by Giles Laurent.jpg
Red-chested cuckoo at Kibale Forest National Park, Uganda
Calls recorded in Kitale, Kenya
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Cuculiformes
Family: Cuculidae
Genus: Cuculus
Species:
C. solitarius
Binomial name
Cuculus solitarius
Stephens, 1815

The red-chested cuckoo (Cuculus solitarius) is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is a medium-sized bird found in Africa, south of the Sahara. In Afrikaans, it is known as "Piet-my-vrou", after its call. [2]

Contents

Description

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. [3]

Distribution and habitat

Male at Walter Sisulu Botanical Garden, South Africa Red-chested Cuckoo (Cuculus solitarius) in tree crop.jpg
Male at Walter Sisulu Botanical Garden, South Africa
A female in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa Red-chested cuckoo (Cuculus solitarius) female.jpg
A female in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
A juvenile bird being fed by a Cape robin-chat host Piet-my-vrou & cape robin.jpg
A juvenile bird being fed by a Cape robin-chat host
An immature bird in fresh plumage, South Africa Cuculus solitarius, onvolw in Mkhuze-wildreservaat, Birding Weto, a.jpg
An immature bird in fresh plumage, South Africa

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. [1] 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. [3]

Behaviour

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. [3]

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). [4] 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. [3] 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.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common cuckoo</span> Species of bird

The common cuckoo is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, Cuculiformes, which includes the roadrunners, the anis and the coucals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Himalayan cuckoo</span> Species of bird

Cuculus saturatus, better well known as the Himalayan cuckoo, is a brooding parasitic bird that is part of the Cuculidae family. The species breeds from the Himalayas eastward to southern China and Taiwan. It migrates to southeast Asia and the Greater Sunda Islands for the winter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape robin-chat</span> Species of bird

The Cape robin-chat is a small passerine bird of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It has a disjunct range from South Sudan to South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black cuckoo</span> Species of bird

The black cuckoo is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. The species is distributed widely across sub-Saharan Africa. There are two subspecies. This cuckoo has a very wide range and is quite common so it is classified as a least-concern species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African cuckoo</span> Species of bird

The African cuckoo is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is found in Sub-Saharan Africa where it migrates within the continent, generally arriving and breeding in any one locality during the rainy season. A fairly common bird, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being of "least concern".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pallid cuckoo</span> Species of bird

The pallid cuckoo is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is found in Australia, with some migration to the islands of Timor and Papua New Guinea. It is between 28 and 33 cm in size, with distinctive markings such as a dark bill, a dark eye with a gold eye-ring and olive grey feet which differentiate it from other cuckoos. The pallid cuckoo is similar in appearance to the oriental cuckoo, with barred immature pallid cuckoos being often mistaken for oriental cuckoos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rufous-tailed palm thrush</span> Species of bird

The rufous-tailed palm thrush is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-browed robin-chat</span> Species of bird

The white-browed robin-chat, also known as Heuglin's robin, is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. Found in east, central and southern Africa, its natural habitats include riverine forest and thickets, and it is also found near humans. The IUCN classifies it as a least-concern species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-throated robin-chat</span> Species of bird

The white-throated robin-chat or white-throated robin is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is endemic to Botswana, Eswatini, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitats are dry savannah and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African pied wagtail</span> Species of bird

The African pied wagtail, or African wagtail, is a species of bird in the family Motacillidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-starred robin</span> Species of bird

The white-starred robin is a species of bird in the Old World flycatcher and chat family Muscicapidae. It is also sometimes more simply called the starred robin. It is monotypic within the genus Pogonocichla. There are around twelve subspecies. The species is found in East and southern Africa. It is a forest species, occurring in montane forest in the north of its range but closer to sea level further south. This is a brightly coloured robin with a bright yellow breast and belly, a slate coloured head with spots on the eyes and throat and blueish wings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oriental cuckoo</span> Species of bird

The Oriental cuckoo or Horsfields cuckoo is a bird belonging to the genus Cuculus in the cuckoo family Cuculidae. It was formerly classified as a subspecies of the Himalayan cuckoo, with the name 'Oriental cuckoo' used for the combined species. Differences in voice and size suggest that it should be treated as a separate species. The binomial name Cuculus horsfieldi has often been used instead of Cuculus optatus, but is now usually considered to be a junior synonym.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sunda cuckoo</span> Species of bird

The Sunda cuckoo or Sunda lesser cuckoo is a South-east Asian bird belonging to the genus Cuculus in the cuckoo family, Cuculidae. It was formerly classified with the Himalayan cuckoo and Oriental cuckoo in a single species, C. saturatus, but is now often regarded as a separate species based on differences in voice, size and plumage.

References

  1. 1 2 BirdLife International (2016). "Cuculus solitarius". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T22683862A93004360. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22683862A93004360.en . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. Sinclair, Ian (31 July 1995). Voëls van Suider-Afrika. Struik. ISBN   1-86825-197-7.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Erritzøe, Johannes; Mann, Clive F.; Brammer, Frederik; Fuller, Richard A. (2012). Cuckoos of the World. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 451–453. ISBN   978-1-4081-4267-7.
  4. "Cuculus solitarius (Red-chested cuckoo)". Biodiversity Explorer. Izico. Retrieved 2014-06-10.