PHILIP VAN DEN BERG (U34) writes: As pointed out before, the cuckoo family is a large family of which most are brood parasites. Coucals and malkohas are the exceptions.
The true cuckoos are all intra-African migrants that visit southern Africa in summer. At the peak of the breeding season their loud, incessant, and repetitive calls are typical of the African bush in summer. Only the males call, and it is thought that the intensity of their calls activates hormone development in the females to synchronize their egg-laying with that of the host birds. The common cuckoo from Eurasia does not breed here and is therefore quiet. Cuckoos are insectivorous and eat hairy caterpillars that most other birds avoid.
Pictured above is the Levaillant’s cuckoo (Afr.: gestreepte nuwejaarsvoël) with its black back and crest, black striped, white throat and breast (in a few cases black), and its boldly marked long tail is a common visitor to our area. It announces its presence after arriving at the beginning of summer with loud kreeu kreeu followed by a fast tutututututu.
They parasitize arrow-marked babblers. See the photograph below.
Babblers live in small families and there is always an attendant at the nest, but if its attention is diverted, the female cuckoo enters the nest and lays her egg within seconds. She also punctures one of the hosts’ eggs and may return to puncture the others.
The blue egg of the cuckoo is bigger, and upon hatching, the chick receives the undivided attention of the babbler’s foster parents. During the five years that I have lived here, I have experienced three different cases of Levaillant’s cuckoo chicks being attended to by babblers. The photograph of the juvenile cuckoo (below) was taken in our village.
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