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Burchell’s Coucal- Centropus burchelli

Descritpion:
41cm
call: sounds like “water being poured from bottle” (Roberts 7th Edition 2005: 220)

Habitat: lush vegetation along coastal zones, rivers and forest edges

Food: mice, will even catch domestic chickens! Insects, lizards, chameleons and the like.

Is it true that they are also known as the "rain bird"? I recall seeing them all over Kruger just before a shower of rain. Also very shy birds.

I have always known it as the rain bird, and it definitely does call before and after rain, but I couldn't find mention of it in any of the books I have When we lived on the farm, in the hot,dry summers that was the most heavenly sound

I also know it as the rainbird, DB
I read somewhere that it's watery call is often heard before rain

With a bit of a twist... the call of the bird will go up and then come down in tone. then only will it rain. the normal common upgoing call does not resemble rain.

For some reason or another I really wanted to see (and photograph) one during my june 2006 trip. Subconsiously though, not something I really thought about. I saw plenty all over the Park north of the line Orpen - N'wanetsi. This one is a fluke, just as I was pressing the button a fly (?) zoomed past him, going for it he was taking his head out of the area that is sharp, but somehow making a better picture than I would have had otherwise.

Here's a kill!

We saw this BC kill this chameleon at the foot of the Matambeni hide last June.

They are quite ferocious killer and have a special taste for youg fledglings which is why they are often harassed by other birds.

We saw lots and lots of them around the Satara northwards area. The wife was worried about the rain bird name. However, they must not have been calling as we had no rain.

Rain bird, yeah right, I saw two calling in 35 degrees C on Saturday.

Also saw a few around Satara.


Come to thing of it, the most i saw were on the S100

Burchells' Coucal

We have a Burchell's Coucal that has been resident in our garden for a long time. It has become quite tame - it absolutely loves grated cheese and at least once a day it comes asking for some.
We were away for the long weekend and when we came back on Tuesday afternoon I went to put out food for the birds and the Coucal appeared. I immediately noticed something was wrong with its beak and on closer inspection saw that the lower part was broken. I cannot describe how upset I was (and still is) on seeing this. How could this possibly have happened? And is there any way in which this bird can survive? I can hardly bear watching it trying to eat and drink at the birdbath.
What can one do in a situation such as this?

Saw a rather bedraggled one in the rain over the weekend at Wilderness - My first in the Cape.

I just love these birds. This one was trying to dry himself after the rains in Dec 06 at Shingwedzi.


I also tried to make a sound recording of them.
http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=2ik2qs5