Clamator levaillantii
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
Levaillant's cuckoo (Clamator levaillantii) is a cuckoo which is a resident breeding species in Africa south of the Sahara. It is found in bushy habitats. It is a brood parasite, using the nests of bulbuls and babblers. It was named in honour of the French explorer, collector and ornithologist, François Le Vaillant.
The cuckoo is 37.5 cm (15 in) long, longer tailed than pied cuckoo, and with a more heavily streaked throat. There are two colour morphs. The light morph is black above, faintly glossed bluish or greenish. The throat streaking may extend on to the sides. The primaries and rectrix tips are white. The dark morph is black except for the white primary patch and white spots on the outer tail feathers (these are absent in dark pied cuckoo. The juvenile Levaillant's cuckoo is brown above, rufous on the wing-coverts and rectrix tips, with a buff forehead, face and underparts, and the throat more streaked. The call is a low ringing kuwu-weer, kuwu-weer... and an excited ku-wi-wi-wi.
Levaillant's cuckoo is a brood parasite and the female lays her eggs in the nest of another species of bird, typically the southern pied babbler (Turdoides bicolor... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 2 | Accra | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 3 | Harare | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 4 | Maiduguri | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 5 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 6 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 7 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Levaillant's Cuckoo sighting in Etosha National Park on a given day, based on 7 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 246th most-seen of the 260 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Levaillant's Cuckoo in Etosha National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January to November, the lowest months. That is one of Etosha National Park's wettest months, with about 50 mm of rain against almost none in June.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Levaillant's Cuckoo sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
33rd of 34
Of the 34 parks where we can rate Levaillant's Cuckoo sightings, Etosha National Park ranks 33rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Lake Mburo National Park (Uganda, about 20%), Akagera National Park (Rwanda, about 10%) and Mana Pools National Park (Zimbabwe, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Levaillant's Cuckoo is recorded against all the birds logged in Etosha National Park (7 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.
