Levaillant's Cuckoo
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| Levaillant's Cuckoo | ||||||||||||||
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| Clamator levaillantii (Swainson, 1829) |
The Levaillant's Cuckoo, Clamator levaillantii is a cuckoo which is a resident breeding species in Africa south of the Sahara. It is foundin bushy habitats.
It is a brood parasite, using the nests of bulbuls and babblers.
This species is 37.5 cm (15") long, longer tailed than Pied Cuckoo, and with a more heavily streaked throat. There are two colour morphs. The light morph is black above, faintly glossed bluish or greenish. The throat streaking may extend on to the sides. The primaries and rectrix tips are white. The dark morph is black except for the white primary patch and white spots on the outer tail feathers (these are absent in dark Pied Cuckoo. The juvenile Levaillant's Cuckoo is brown above, rufous on thewing-coverts and rectrix tips, with a buff forehead, face and underparts, and the throat more streaked.
The call is a low ringing kuwu-weer, kuwu-weer... and an excited ku-wi-wi-wi
This species was named in honour of the French explorer, collector and ornithologist, François Le Vaillant.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Clamator levaillantii. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- Dale A. Zimmerman, Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania, Princeton University Press, 1999
