Chrysococcyx cupreus
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
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 Queen Elizabeth National Park on a given day, based on 19 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 328th most-seen of the 434 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report an African Emerald Cuckoo in Queen Elizabeth National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April to February, 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.
22nd of 26
Of the 26 parks where we can rate African Emerald Cuckoo sightings, Queen Elizabeth National Park ranks 22nd 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 Queen Elizabeth National Park (genus Chrysococcyx, Emerald Cuckoos and allies) are Dideric Cuckoo (about 20%) 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 Queen Elizabeth National Park (19 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.
