Chrysococcyx cupreus
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The African emerald cuckoo (Chrysococcyx cupreus) is a species of cuckoo that is native to Africa. As a member of the family Cuculidae, the African emerald cuckoo is an Old World cuckoo. C. c. insularum: São Tomé, Príncipe, and Annobón (Gulf of Guinea) Its range covers most of sub-Saharan Africa, including Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, DRC, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The African emerald cuckoo is sexually dimorphic. The males have a green back and head with a yellow breast. Females are barred green and brown on their backs and green and white on their breasts. The African emerald cuckoo can also be identified by its... Wikipedia →
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an African Emerald Cuckoo sighting in Gorongosa National Park on a given day, based on 5 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 235th most-seen of the 250 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report an African Emerald Cuckoo in Gorongosa National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February and April–October, the lowest months. March and December–January have too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most African Emerald 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.
18th of 26
Of the 26 parks where we can rate African Emerald Cuckoo sightings, Gorongosa National Park ranks 18th at under 5%. The best odds are in Semuliki National Park (Uganda, about 30%), Kibale National Park (Uganda, about 30%) and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Uganda, about 20%).
Same family: Cuculidae
The closest relatives of the African Emerald Cuckoo that you can see in Gorongosa National Park (family Cuculidae, Cuckoos) are White-browed Coucal (about 30%) and Red-chested Cuckoo (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the African Emerald Cuckoo is recorded against all the birds logged in Gorongosa National Park (5 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.
