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Photo: Maans Booysen, Birding Weto · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source ↗
African Cuckoo
Afrikaanse Koekoek · Cuculus gularis
A grey, hawk-like cuckoo that is the local twin of the Common Cuckoo, separated by its yellower bill and a soft hooting call. It specialises in parasitising fork-tailed drongos, slipping its egg into their nests. A summer visitor, it withdraws north of South Africa for winter.
Log your African Cuckoo sighting — free →How to identify it
Near-identical to Common Cuckoo but with a more barred tail and a more yellow-based bill; best told by call.
Listen for its call
A soft "hoop-hoop", a bit like a dove calling far away.
Where to see it in Kruger
Open woodland in summer, where it parasitises fork-tailed drongos.
Did you know
Like other cuckoos, it tricks other birds into raising its chick for it.
Often confused with
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