From Opus

nominate ssp
Photo by Steve G
Malindi, Kenya, August 2007

Centropus superciliosus

Includes: Burchell's Coucal

Identification

This is a large bird (about 16", 410mm in length) with very striking plumage including its distinctive broad, yellowish-white supercilliary stripe. However it can be difficult to see due to its habit of skulking in shubbery, undergrowth and dense waterside vegetation.
burchelli is missing the white superciliary stripe

Distribution

Central, southern and eastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

Taxonomy

juvenile
Photo by juninho
Maasai Mara NP, Kenya

Centropus superciliosus has four subspecies:

• C. s. superciliosus from east Sudan to Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, northeast Uganda and northeast Tanzania
• C. s. sokotrae on Socotra and in southwest Arabia
• C. s. loandae from Uganda and southwest Kenya to northern Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Angola
• C. s. burchellii from east Botswana to southern Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa

burchellii is sometimes accepted as full species, Burchell's Coucal.

Habitat

Riverine bush and wetlands.

Behaviour

As with other Coucals, the White-browed Coucal is non-parasitic. The males construct a nest, they then incubate the eggs and provide most of the feeding and care for the young.

It has a wide diet consisting mostly of insects, but it will also take young birds and eggs. While it will feed on the ground it is easily disturbed, returning to cover in a clumsy, awkward fashion. These birds are not elegant fliers!

burchellii
Photo by rudydbn
Illovo Glen, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

They have a very distinctive song which consists of a series of "gurgling" notes which resemble the sound of water being poured from a bottle and gives them their local Kenyan name of "The Water Bottle Bird".

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