Cuculus solitarius
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
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 →
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Red-chested Cuckoo sighting in Lower Zambezi National Park on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 210th most-seen of the 241 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 and December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Red-chested Cuckoo in Lower Zambezi National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January and April–October, the lowest months. Those are among Lower Zambezi National Park's wettest months, with about 140 mm of rain a month against almost none in September. February and March have too few records to rate.
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.
39th of 46
Of the 46 parks where we can rate Red-chested Cuckoo sightings, Lower Zambezi National Park ranks 39th at under 5%. The best odds are in Kibale National Park (Uganda, about 40%), uMkhuze Game Reserve (South Africa, about 40%) and Semuliki National Park (Uganda, about 30%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Red-chested Cuckoo is recorded against all the birds logged in Lower Zambezi National Park (9 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.
