Centropus cupreicaudus
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
The coppery-tailed coucal (Centropus cupreicaudus) is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is found in Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It was first described by the German ornithologist Anton Reichenow in 1896.
An adult coppery-tailed coucal is about 48 cm (19 in) long and has a curved beak and long, broad tail. Males are slightly smaller than females. The coppery-tailed coucal's plumage is similar to that of the Senegal coucal (Centropus senegalensis). It has a black head and upperparts, white or cream-coloured underparts, a brown rump with a coppery-sheen and a blackish-brown tail. Immature birds have pale streaks on the head and their flight feathers are barred. The call of the coppery-tailed coucal consists of deep, bubbling notes.
The coppery-tailed coucal is native to parts of south central Africa. Its range stretches from Angola in the west to southwestern Tanzania, northern Botswana and the Caprivi Strip in Namibia. Its typical habitat is swampland and dense vegetation near rivers, but it is also found on inundated floodplains and near seasonal... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Moremi Game Reserve | 🇧🇼 Botswana | |
| 2 | Chobe National Park | 🇧🇼 Botswana | |
| 3 | Kafue National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Coppery-tailed Coucal sighting in Chobe National Park on a given day, based on 300 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 68th most-seen of the 373 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January–February and November
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Coppery-tailed Coucal in Chobe National Park on a given day, against about 10% in April, June–July and September, the lowest months. Those are among Chobe National Park's wettest months, with about 100 mm of rain a month against almost none in May.
Between 4 and 7 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Coppery-tailed Coucal sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 3
Of the 3 parks where we can rate Coppery-tailed Coucal sightings, Chobe National Park ranks 2nd at about 20%. The best odds are in Moremi Game Reserve (Botswana, about 50%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Coppery-tailed Coucal is recorded against all the birds logged in Chobe National Park (300 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
