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Photo: Zeynel Cebeci · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source ↗
Great Spotted Cuckoo
Gevlekte Koekoek · Clamator glandarius
A big, long-tailed cuckoo with a grey crest and boldly white-spotted wings. It targets starlings and crows, and unusually its young are reared alongside the host's own chicks rather than evicting them. A summer migrant, it leaves Kruger for tropical Africa once breeding finishes.
Log your Great Spotted Cuckoo sighting — free →How to identify it
Large and long-tailed with a grey crest and white-spotted brown wings; parasitises starlings and crows.
Listen for its call
Loud, crow-like chattering and a harsh "keeow".
Where to see it in Kruger
Open woodland and bushwillow country in summer, near starling and crow nests.
Did you know
Its chick lets its foster parents raise it without shoving the other eggs out of the nest.
Often confused with
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