Great Spotted Cuckoo ( Clamator glandarius, family: cuculidae)

great spotted cuckoo kruger national park birds The Great Spotted Cuckoo (Latin name Clamator glandarius) is described in Roberts Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition. This bird has a unique Roberts number of 380 and you will find a full description of this bird on page 202 also a picture of the Great Spotted Cuckoo on page 208. The Great Spotted Cuckoo belongs to the family of birds classified as cuculidae. According to the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology the Great Spotted Cuckoo is also known by these other names: Greater Spotted Cuckoo.

The map of the Kruger you see on this page shows the areas (coloured orange) where this bird has been identified. The basic information was provided by the Avian Demographic Unit based at UCT and I created the maps from that information ... the green dots show the locations of the various Kruger National Park Rest Camps

The Great Spotted Cuckoo is neither Endemic or near Endemic to the Kruger National Park. It is however a common summer visitor

In terms of distribution of the Great Spotted Cuckoo in the Kruger National Park you may not see it in all areas. Great Spotted Cuckoo : see above distribution map.

The Great Spotted Cuckoo.

Kruger Park Great Spotted CuckooIdentification assistance for this avian species ...

The Great Spotted Cuckoo is a bird about the size of a Francolin now called Spurfowl. The height of the Great Spotted Cuckoo is about 40 cms and its weight is about 170 gms

The male and female Great Spotted Cuckoo have the same plumage and colours

  • Head is silver, grey.
  • Eye is brown.
  • Bill is blue.
  • Throat is cream.
  • Back is grey.
  • Legs are grey.

This bird has normally proportioned leg length.

Main diet items for this bird ...

The Great Spotted Cuckoo feeds on the ground and in foliage mainly

Invertebrates

Breeding and nesting habits for this bird ...

The Great Spotted Cuckoo is monogamous unless its mate dies. In the event of a partner dying Clamator glandarius will seek out a new mate

The nesting habit of Great Spotted Cuckoo is to use the nest of another bird. The surrogate family then raise the chicks. The bird lays eggs which are plain in colour and number between 6

Habitat and flocking behaviour for this bird ...

The preferred habitats for Great Spotted Cuckoo are: woodlands and grasslands

You will not see Great Spotted Cuckoo in flocks. The bird prefers to act singly or in pairs.

Names of this avian species in other languages ...

Xhosa ... Unknown

Zulu ... Unknown

Afrikaans ...Gevlekte Koekoek

German ... Hherkuckuck

Portuguese ... Cuco-rabilongo

French ... Coucou geai

Dutch ... Kuifkoekoek

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For in-depth birding information please refer to these authoritative avian references ...

Robert's 7th edition number ... 380

The main reference source for this data was "Roberts - Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition" . Other references were "Newmans Birds of the Kruger Park" by Keith Newman published circa 1980 . Names in foreign languages were obtained from the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town website , www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za