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Photo: Andy Morffew from Itchen Abbas, Hampshire, UK · CC BY 2.0 · source ↗
Common Cuckoo
Europese Koekoek · Cuculus canorus
The famous European cuckoo, a grey hawk-like migrant that reaches Kruger in summer but stays silent, making it hard to tell from the African Cuckoo. It feeds largely on hairy caterpillars that other birds avoid, and returns to Eurasia to breed, so it is absent in winter.
Log your Common Cuckoo sighting — free →How to identify it
Grey, hawk-like cuckoo almost identical to African Cuckoo; silent here, so very hard to separate in the field.
Listen for its call
The famous "cuck-oo" — the clock-bird call from Europe.
Where to see it in Kruger
Woodland across the park as a quiet, easily overlooked summer migrant.
Did you know
A single female can lay her eggs in dozens of different birds' nests in one season.
Often confused with
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