Cuculus solitarius
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
The red-chested cuckoo (Cuculus solitarius) is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is a medium-sized bird found in Africa, south of the Sahara. In Afrikaans, it is known as "Piet-my-vrou", after its call. The red-chested cuckoo is a medium-size cuckoo about 31 cm (12.2 in) in length. The male has slate-grey upper parts, pale grey throat and sides of head and dark grey tail tipped with white. The breast is rufous or cinnamon, often with barring, and the belly is creamy-white or pale buff. The female is similar but the colour of the breast is duller and with variable amounts of barring.
It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In Southern Africa it is a common breeding migrant, found throughout the area except for the drier west. The preferred habitats... Wikipedia →
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Red-chested Cuckoo sighting in Johannesburg on a given day, based on 229 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 79th most-seen of the 219 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November and December
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Red-chested Cuckoo in Johannesburg on a given day, against under 5% in February to September, the lowest months. Those are among Johannesburg's wettest months, with about 110 mm of rain a month against almost none in July.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red-chested Cuckoo sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 7
Of the 7 cities where we can rate Red-chested Cuckoo sightings, Johannesburg ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Kampala (Uganda, about 20%), Harare (Zimbabwe, about 10%) and Nairobi (Kenya, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Red-chested Cuckoo is recorded against all the birds logged in Johannesburg (229 verified sightings), 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.
