Campephaga flava
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The black cuckooshrike (Campephaga flava) is a species of bird in the cuckooshrike family Campephagidae. The species is closely related to Petit's cuckooshrike and the red-shouldered cuckooshrike, and forms a superspecies with them. It is also known as the African black cuckooshrike.
It is found in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, dry savanna, and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland.
Black Cuckooshrike - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds. Wikipedia →
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Black Cuckoo-shrike sighting in Masai Mara National Reserve on a given day, based on 118 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 217th most-seen of the 398 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.
January–February, April and November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black Cuckoo-shrike in Masai Mara National Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in March, May–October and December, the lowest months. Those are among Masai Mara National Reserve's wettest months, with about 95 mm of rain a month against 15 mm in July.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black Cuckoo-shrike sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
26th of 41
Of the 41 parks where we can rate Black Cuckoo-shrike sightings, Masai Mara National Reserve ranks 26th at under 5%. The best odds are in Arusha National Park (Tanzania, about 30%), uMkhuze Game Reserve (South Africa, about 30%) and Nairobi National Park (Kenya, about 20%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Black Cuckoo-shrike that you can see in Masai Mara National Reserve (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Superb Starling (about 60%), Common Bulbul (about 60%) and Rüppell's Glossy-starling (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black Cuckoo-shrike is recorded against all the birds logged in Masai Mara National Reserve (118 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.
