Grey Cuckooshrike ( Coracina caesia, family: Campephagidae)

grey cuckooshrike kruger national park birds The Grey Cuckooshrike (Latin name Coracina caesia) is described in Roberts Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition. This bird has a unique Roberts number of 540 and you will find a full description of this bird on page 732 also a picture of the Grey Cuckooshrike on page 705. The Grey Cuckooshrike belongs to the family of birds classified as Campephagidae. According to the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology the Grey Cuckooshrike is also known by these other names: Mountain Grey Cuckooshrike, African Grey Cuckooshrike.

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 Grey Cuckooshrike is neither Endemic or near Endemic to the Kruger National Park.

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

Identification assistance for this avian species ...

The Grey Cuckooshrike is a bird about the same size as a starling. The height of the Grey Cuckooshrike is about 27 cms and its weight is about 65 gms

You will find that the male Grey Cuckooshrike plumage and colours are different to that of the female Grey Cuckooshrike

  • Head is blue, grey.
  • Eye is brown.
  • Bill is black.
  • Throat is white.
  • Back is blue, grey.
  • Legs are black.

This bird has normally proportioned leg length.

Main diet items for this bird ...

The Grey Cuckooshrike feeds on tree trunks mainly

Invertebrates

Breeding and nesting habits for this bird ...

The Grey Cuckooshrike is monogamous unless its mate dies. In the event of a partner dying Coracina caesia will seek out a new mate

The nesting habit of Grey Cuckooshrike is to create the nest in branches of a tree or shrub. The bird lays eggs which are brown in colour and number between 1 to 2

Habitat and flocking behaviour for this bird ...

The preferred habitats for Grey Cuckooshrike are: forests and heavily treed regions

You will normally see the Grey Cuckooshrike in pairs or flocks and not as single birds.

Names of this avian species in other languages ...

Xhosa ... Umsimpofu/Usinga

Zulu ... iKlebedwane

Afrikaans ...Bloukatakoeroe

German ... Grauer Raupenfnger, Waldraupenfnger

Portuguese ... Lagarteiro-cinzento

French ... chenilleur gris

Dutch ... Bosrupsvogel

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

Robert's 7th edition number ... 540

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