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 Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park on a given day, based on 10 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 186th most-seen of the 220 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.
March and October–December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an African Emerald Cuckoo in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park on a given day, against under 5% in January–February and April–September, the lowest months.
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.
17th of 26
Of the 26 parks where we can rate African Emerald Cuckoo sightings, Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park ranks 17th 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 genus: Chrysococcyx
The closest relatives of the African Emerald Cuckoo that you can see in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park (genus Chrysococcyx, Emerald Cuckoos and allies) are Dideric Cuckoo (about 10%) and Klaas's 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 Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park (10 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.
