Burchell’s Coucal (Centropus burchellii)

Cover image of Burchell’s Coucal by Pieter Cronje

Coucals along with Cuckoos and Malkohas belong to the family CUCULIDAE. Globally, the family also includes Roadrunners, Anis, Koels, and Couas. It is a rather diverse family of smallish to fairly large birds with varied plumage. All species have zygodactyl feet and relatively long and heavy tails. Their bills are arched along the top and may be narrow, or deep and stout. Most species are arboreal, but a few are terrestrial. The true Cuckoos are brood parasitic, but all others in the family raise and care for their own young. The group has a cosmopolitan distribution, although most species are found in the tropics.

Identification

Coucals are relatively unusual among birds in having zygocactylous feet (2 toes pointing forwards, and 2 toes pointing backwards) to aid in clambering through dense vegetation. They also have specially adapted, long claws on the hind toes (the genus name Centropus refers to this and means ‘spike foot’) which are thought to spread the birds weight as they clamber over and through loose vegetation.

Burchell’s Coucal sexes are alike, although females are larger than males. They are predominantly tri-coloured in rich rufous, black and off-white. The Crown and face down to the upper mantle is plain black with a glossy tinge. The back and folded wings are chestnut. The rump and upper tail coverts are brown with fine buff-brown barring. The tail is relatively long and glossy black. The underparts are off-white, often with fine brown barring on the flanks and around the vent. There is noticeable white quill ‘streaking’ on the sides of the neck and upper flanks which is more conspicuous in birds from the southern parts of its range. The wings, above and below, are entirely rich rufous. The strong, arched bill is black, the eyes are red and the legs and feet are blue-grey to black.

Juvenile and immature birds have quite different plumage to the adults. Initially, as juveniles, the head and mantle are buff-coloured with off-white streaking, sometimes with white feather shafts. The rump and tail are dark matt brown with fine, dense barring. The wings are rufous with dense dark brown barring and the underparts are buff-brown and often barred. Later, immature birds develop an off-white eyebrow (supercilium) and have orange (not red) eyes. The barring on the back and wings is slowly lost with age, as is the supercilium. The underparts change from buffy-brown to off-white.

There are 3 other similarly plumaged coucals in southern Africa. However, the range of the Burchell’s Coucal only overlaps with that of Senegal Coucal (Centropus senegalensis), reducing the risk of confusion. The adult Senegal Coucal lacks the fine barring at the base of the tail and on the upper tail coverts and rump. Juveniles of the two species are problematic to identify and are likely indistinguishable in the field.

Status and Distribution

The Burchell’s Coucal is a fairly common to common resident and is near-endemic to Southern Africa. The distribution stretches from south-eastern Tanzania south through Mozambique, eastern Zimbabwe, to south-eastern Botswana, and most of South Africa to the south Western Cape. The Burchell’s Coucal avoids the more arid western and central parts of southern Africa, except for a narrow strip along the Orange River. It is also generally scarce at higher altitudes.

The Burchell’s Coucal has expanded its range into the south-western Cape in recent years where it is now fairly common. This has been aided by its tolerance of a wide range of rank habitats, including well-wooded gardens. However, the continued loss and degradation of wetlands is likely to reduce habitat. The Burchell’s Coucal is not Threatened.

Habitat

The Burchell’s Coucal inhabits, dense, tangled growth and rank vegetation including, thickets, reedbeds, coastal bush, and forest edge. It favours riparian margins and drainage lines, and the ecotones between wetlands and adjoining woodland, forest or grassland. It is also common in and adjacent to sugar cane fields and well-vegetated suburban gardens. The Burchell’s Coucal mostly occurs in areas where rainfall exceeds 600 mm per year.

Behaviour

The Burchell’s Coucal is usually found in pairs or solitarily. It is a sedentary, resident species but may occasionally wander short distances into better habitat after fires or when wetlands dry up. They are partly crepuscular and most active in the early morning or during overcast and rainy weather. The colloquial name of ‘Rain Bird’ is fitting.

Skulks in dense vegetation and clambers adeptly through vegetation. They often run on the ground between habitat patches, including crossing roads. Burchells Coucals are generally reluctant to fly. The flight appears heavy or laboured with alternate flapping and gliding before crashing, somewhat clumsily into dense vegetation. The Burchell’s Coucal is reportedly also able to swim when necessary.

They are often shy and weary and seldom seen unless flying between thickets or perched on top of a bush or post. The Burchell’s Coucal is more often heard than seen. Their loud, liquid or bubbling call is heard most frequently in the early morning and before, during and after rain, but may continue throughout the day and on moonlit nights. They are largely silent outside of the breeding season. The Burchell’s Coucal bathes regularly in pools or wet vegetation and also sunbathes by drooping the wings and fanning the tail while perched on top of a bush.

The bill is strong and robust with a small hooked tip to kill and dismember their prey. Females have a longer and heavier bill than the males, this ensures that the sexes exploit different prey items, reducing competition for food. The Burchell’s Coucal slowly searches the ground and vegetation for prey. It is a rapacious predator that will devour any smaller creature it can overpower. Small prey is swallowed whole, but larger prey is broken into pieces or pulverised by pecking. Snails are beaten against a stone, tree root or similar hard object to break the shell. Hunts mice by stalking them like a cat and takes the chicks of domestic chickens in the same way. The Burchell’s Coucal is major predator of bird eggs and nestlings which they remove directly from nests. They are also drawn to fires to catch injured or fleeing animals.

They consume a wide range of invertebrate and vertebrate prey. Invertebrates eaten include grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, mantids, bugs, beetles, moths, centipedes, scorpions, spiders, woodlice, crabs, and snails. Vertebrate prey includes chameleons, lizards, small snakes, frogs and toads, mice, shrews, young mole-rats, nestling birds, and adult birds up to the size of Laughing dove (Spilopelia senegalensis). Burchell’s Coucals are also known to take adult birds caught in mist nets! On occasion the Burchell’s Coucal will also eats fruits and berries.

The Burchell’s Coucal is normally monogamous and pairs nest solitarily with nests widely spaced. However, it is the female who calls from a perch to advertise territory during the breeding season. This role reversal combined with the females larger size, suggests possible facultative polyandry. Facultative means optionally or flexibly in response to circumstances. This is a mating strategy wherein normally monogamous females mate with more than one male within a breeding period due to environmental pressures. The exact factors that may cause this in the Burchell’s Coucal seems to not be fully understood.

The Burchell’s Coucal builds an unusual bulky, oval-shaped nest. It is a dome or ball up to 38cm high and up to 30cm wide. It has a circular entrance hole near the top on one side. Nests are sometimes also built without a roof. The nest is well concealed despite its size, and placed in the leafy foliage of a tree, bush, creeper, or dense stand of grass or reeds. It is typically situated 1 to 3 m above the ground, rarely at ground level. The nest is built by by both sexes or sometimes by the male only. Long, coarse strands of dry grass are used in its construction, which are roughly woven or curled around to form the ball. The interior cup is lined with finer grass and leaves. Further green leaves are added to the lining during incubation.

Eggs are laid between August and January across its range, even in the winter rainfall region. Egg laying peaks between October and December. Eggs are occasionally also laid in other months. 3 to 5 plain white eggs are usually laid per clutch at 1 to 3 day intervals. The incubation and nestling period is relatively short. Incubation lasts for 15 to 16 days and is performed by both sexes but the majority is done by the male. Incubation starts with the first laid egg and results in asynchronous hatching.

The nestlings are unique, having black skin and stiff, hair-like white down. They hiss when threatened or touched and void foul-smelling excreta if handled. The chicks legs develop quickly enabling them to run and clamber, and to leave the nest early. The young leave the nest at 14 to 21 days, long before they are able to fly. After leaving the nest the young are tended and cared for by both sexes. During very hot conditions the parents may regurgitate water for the chicks to drink.

A replacement clutch is often laid if the eggs or brood are lost early in the breeding process. Voluntary brood reduction may be enacted when food is scarce, with smaller, weaker nestlings being neglected to the point of starvation. The Burchell’s Coucal is multiple brooded during good conditions.

Further Resources

This species text is adapted from the first Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP1), 1997.

The use of photographs by Cameron Meyer, Claudia Risch, Desire Darling, Gordon Neubert, Gregg Darling, John Cox, Malcolm Robinson, Mark Stanton, Pieter Cronje, Rebecca Ackermann, Tino Herselman and Tony Archer is acknowledged.

Virtual Museum (BirdPix > Search VM > By Scientific or Common Name).

Other common names: Gewone vleiloerie (Afrikaans); uFukwe, umGugwane (Zulu); Ubikhwe (Xhosa); Burrchell-spoorkoekoek (Dutch); Coucal de Burchell (French); Tiputip (German); Cucal de Burchell (Portuguese).

List of species available in this format.

Recommended citation format: Tippett RM 2025. Burchell’s Coucal Centropus burchellii. Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available online at https://thebdi.org/2025/01/15/burchells-coucal-centropus-burchellii/

Bird identification, birding