• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Where premium quality meets exceptional value. ZEISS Conquest HDX.

Burchell's Coucal - BirdForum Opus

Subspecies burchellii
Photo © by rudydbn
Illovo Glen, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, October 2004
Centropus burchellii

Identification

White underparts and throat, rufous brown upperparts, black head and nape, long dark grey tail, dark eye, dark hooked bill.

Distribution

Eastern Tanzania through Malawi, and southern Zambia to northern Botswana as well as to Mozambique, southern Zimbabwe, eastern Botswana and South Africa.

Taxonomy

Burchell's Coucal
Photo © by George Koninis
Kruger National Park, South Africa, October 2012

Burchell's Coucal was formerly considered a subspecies of White-browed Coucal.

Subspecies

Clements recognizes these subspecies[1]:

Habitat

Thickets, reedbeds. coastal bush, borders between woodland and grassland, and near vleis.

Behaviour

The diet includes small animals and insects, some birds, reptiles and amphibians.

The male builds a cup nest from grass and leaves placed in a large grass tuft, reedbed, thicket, creeper, bush, hedge or thorny tree. 2-5 eggs are laid, at 1, less often 2 day intervals. The male incubates the eggs for 15-16 days. The young fledge at about 21 days.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, M. Smith, and C. L. Wood. 2024. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2024. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2024. IOC World Bird List (v 14.2). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.14.2. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
  3. Biodiversity explorer

Recommended Citation

External Links

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1

Back
Top