Botswana Coucals (1 Viewer)

Dave Kennedy · Sep 7, 2012

These two were photographed in the Savuti area of northern Botswana in April this year. The greyish caps suggested juveniles, the first, a large bird, probably Coppery-tailed Coucal, the second, which seemed smaller, Senegal Coucal, but the pink bills have thrown me somewhat. Any opinions will be gratefully received.
Thank you,
Dave

Sal · Sep 8, 2012

Coppery-tailed Coucal looks good to me for the first one. The imm. does have a paler, horn-coloured bill and a grey iris. I don't know the Senegal Coucal, but it seems reasonable that the imm. would have a similar colouring to the bill and the proportion of body to tail looks a better fit for Senegal.

Dave Kennedy · Sep 8, 2012

Sal said:
Coppery-tailed Coucal looks good to me for the first one. The imm. does have a paler, horn-coloured bill and a grey iris. I don't know the Senegal Coucal, but it seems reasonable that the imm. would have a similar colouring to the bill and the proportion of body to tail looks a better fit for Senegal.

Thankyou, Sal. Glad you finally found your way to my coucals.
D

njlarsen · Sep 8, 2012

Dave, I thought I had also written a post, but it disappeared. The Sinclair guide says that juvenile senegal coucal is indistinguishable from coppery-tailed except on size, so when Sal says that one has pale bill as juvenile so presumably does the other.

Niels

Dave Kennedy · Sep 9, 2012

njlarsen said:
Dave, I thought I had also written a post, but it disappeared. The Sinclair guide says that juvenile senegal coucal is indistinguishable from coppery-tailed except on size, so when Sal says that one has pale bill as juvenile so presumably does the other.

Niels

Thanks, Niels,
Looks like these coucals might be tricky. Trouble is, similar birds of different size rarely sit on a branch together so that you can compare them. In my experience, the black cap in an adult CT coucal reaches much further down the back of the neck, but I'm not sure if the same applies to juveniles.
Best wishes,
Dave

Tib78 · Sep 9, 2012

Hi all,

Indeed separating these 2 species in juvenile plumage is very tricky (and adults are not that easy either!). But I guess Senegal is much more likely than Coppery-tailed in Savuti as the latter is very dependant on marshy vegetation and most (if not all) Coppery-tailed are seen near/in the delta.

Botswana Coucals (1 Viewer)

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