Thick-billed cuckoo

Pachycoccyx audeberti

SUBFAMILY

Cuculinae

TAXONOMY

Cuculus audeberti Schlegel, 1879, Madagascar. Three subspecies recognized.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

French: Coucou d'Audebert; German: Dickschnabelkuckuck; Spanish: Crialo Piquigrueso.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

14.2 in (36 cm), 0.23 lb (115 g). Adult gray above, lores white, wings blackish, tail barred brown and black; white below; eye ring yellow, iris brown. Bill blackish or yellow. Its appearance and call, "Ooy-yes-yes," are reminiscent of a hawk.

DISTRIBUTION

Sierra Leone through Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon to Congo and Zaire, Kenya and Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. P. a. audeberti confined to Madagascar.

HABITAT

Miombo woodlands, lowlands, and riverine forests.

BEHAVIOR

Non-migratory, or with local movements.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Insects, mainly hairy caterpillars.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Brood parasitic; hosts are African shrikes (Prionops). Incubation 13 days, nestlings evict host eggs and chicks. Fledges in 28 days.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not globally threatened, uncommon to rare.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

None known.