Chirping with Kloof Conservancy – Klaas’s Cuckoo

THIS beautiful bird is a favourite with many birders in the Highway area as they are quite common in the summer months and are also very photogenic. It can also be an irritating bird with its incessant, plaintive ‘meeee-jtie, meeee-tjie’ call.

Also read: Chirping with Kloof Conservancy – Fan-tailed Widowbird

Description

This is a small, greenish cuckoo, approximately 18cm long and 26g in weight. The male has plain white underparts and glossy green upperparts with dark spurs that extend from the head down onto the lower throat, as well as a conspicuous white patch behind the eye. The female is barred with greenish-bronze on the back, her head is grey-brown, and her underparts are barred brown-and-white. They are often confused with the similar-looking Diderick Cuckoo, but their calls are quite different.

Distribution

The species occurs throughout sub-Saharan Africa with the exception of very arid areas. In South Africa, it is a fairly common resident and sometimes migrant from the eastern parts of the country in the Western Cape through to the Zimbabwean border.

Habitat

The Klaas’s Cuckoo can be found in a wide range of habitats but is most often spotted in wooded areas or forest edges. They have adapted well to human environments and can often be found in well-treed gardens.

Feeding

Klaas’s Cuckoos mainly feed on caterpillars, but they also eat butterflies, beetles and termites. Look for them in Pigeonwood trees which often have many caterpillars feeding on them and which attract the Cuckoos.

Breeding

The Klaas’s Cuckoo is a monogamous species which means that they pair for life. As with all cuckoos, they do not build a nest but rather surreptitiously lay an egg in a host species nest, leaving the host to rear and care for its young. The female usually lays one egg per host nest. It’s preferred brood-parasite hosts are batises, small warblers and sunbirds.

Predators and threats

The Klaas’s Cuckoo is listed as least concern and is one of few local species that may be increasing their range.

Local information

Fairly common in the Highway area so look for them in your garden and in forest edges. The forest edges at the Msinsi Grassland in Kloof are a good area to find them.

Interesting facts

The species was named by French explorer François Le Vaillant in 1806, in his book, The Natural History of Birds of Africa. He named the bird in recognition of his Khoikhoi servant and assistant, named Klaas, who found the specimen that Le Vaillant used to describe the bird.

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