White-browed Coucal - BirdForum Opus

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

Centropus superciliosus

Includes: Burchell's Coucal

Identification

Juvenile
Photo by juninho
Maasai Mara NP, Kenya, August 2005

36–42 cm (14-16½ in)

Dark brown head
Broad white supercilium
Creamy underparts
Long tail

Variations

burchellilacks the white superciliary stripe

Distribution

Central, southern and eastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
Western Africa: Gabon, DRC and Angola
Eastern Africa: Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Pemba Island, Mafia Island, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho
Middle East: Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Socotra

Taxonomy

burchellii
Photo by rudydbn
Illovo Glen, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, October 2004

Subspecies

Centropus superciliosus has four subspecies^[1]:

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

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

Burchell's Coucal
Photo by George Koninis
Kruger National Park, South Africa, October 2012

Habitat

Riverine bush and wetlands.

Behaviour

It can be difficult to see due to its habit of skulking in shrubbery, undergrowth and dense waterside vegetation.

Breeding

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.

Diet

Puffed up behaviour
Photo by rdavis
Near Xigera Camp, central Okavango Delta, Botswana, November 2011

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!

Vocalisation

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".

References

Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2016. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2016, with updates to August 2016. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved November 2016)

List of references

Recommended Citation

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) White-browed Coucal. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 24 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/White-browed_Coucal

External Links

Search for photos of White-browed Coucal in the gallery