Scythrops novaehollandiae
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The channel-billed cuckoo (Scythrops novaehollandiae) is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is monotypic within the genus Scythrops. The species is the largest brood parasite in the world, and the largest cuckoo.
It is found in Australia, New Guinea and Indonesia; additionally, it is vagrant in New Caledonia and New Zealand. The species is migratory over part of its range. There are three subspecies, one migratory, the other two resident. The species is listed as least concern by the IUCN.
Captain Arthur Phillip wrote of this (at the time) mysterious bird—calling it the 'psittaceous hornbill'—in his 1789 work The voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay, consulting with ornithologist John Latham and deliberating that it had features of a parrot, hornbill or toucan, though conceding there were no toucans in the region. He gave it the name Scythrops novaehollandiae in 1790. Its generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek skuthro-/σκυθρο- 'angry' or 'sullen', and ops/ωψ 'face', 'eye' or 'countenance'. The specific epithet novaehollandiae means of New Holland, hence Australian. John White, the surgeon-general of the First Fleet to New South Wales, wrote... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Raja Ampat | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 2 | Kakadu National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 3 | Royal National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 4 | Tangkoko Nature Reserve | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 5 | Blue Mountains National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 6 | Daintree National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 7 | Springbrook National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 8 | Nitmiluk National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 9 | Noosa National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 10 | Lamington National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Territory Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 2 | Perth Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 3 | Adelaide Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 4 | Featherdale Sydney Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 5 | Flying High Bird Sanctuary | 🇦🇺 Australia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Channel-billed Cuckoo sighting in Kakadu National Park on a given day, based on 214 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 85th most-seen of the 186 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March–April, June–July and November–December
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Channel-billed Cuckoo in Kakadu National Park on a given day, against about 10% in January, May and August–October, the lowest months. February has too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Channel-billed 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.
2nd of 10
Of the 10 parks where we can rate Channel-billed Cuckoo sightings, Kakadu National Park ranks 2nd at about 10%. The best odds are in Raja Ampat (Indonesia, about 20%).
Same family: Cuculidae
The closest relatives of the Channel-billed Cuckoo that you can see in Kakadu National Park (family Cuculidae, Cuckoos) are Pheasant Coucal (about 30%), Rusty-breasted Cuckoo (about 20%) and Little Bronze Cuckoo (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Channel-billed Cuckoo is recorded against all the birds logged in Kakadu National Park (214 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.
