Centropus grillii
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The black coucal (Centropus grillii) is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It has a wide distribution in Africa south of the Sahara. The male black coucal is 30 cm (12 in) in length while the female is 34 cm (13 in), otherwise they are similar in appearance. In breeding plumage the head, body and tail are black, apart from some buff barring on the rump, and the wings are rufous. Outside the breeding season, the upper parts are dark brown with rufous barring. The eyes are brown and the beak and legs are black. Juveniles are rufous with various dark and light barring and streaking.
It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, DRC, Ivory Coast, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is resident in some locations and migrant in others. Its habitat is marshes, savannah, grassland, bracken, undergrowth, and clearings in woodland, and occasionally reeds and papyrus... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 2 | Ruaha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 3 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 4 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 5 | Akagera National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 6 | Masai Mara National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 7 | Tarangire National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 8 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 9 | Moremi Game Reserve | 🇧🇼 Botswana | |
| 10 | Lake Mburo National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 11 | Amboseli National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 12 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 13 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 14 | Chobe National Park | 🇧🇼 Botswana |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Black Coucal sighting in Queen Elizabeth National Park on a given day, based on 72 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 223rd most-seen of the 434 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February, June–July, September and December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black Coucal in Queen Elizabeth National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January, March–May, August and October–November, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black Coucal sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 14
Of the 14 parks where we can rate Black Coucal sightings, Queen Elizabeth National Park ranks 4th at under 5%. The best odds are in Kidepo Valley National Park (Uganda, about 20%), Ruaha National Park (Tanzania, about 10%) and Serengeti National Park (Tanzania, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black Coucal is recorded against all the birds logged in Queen Elizabeth National Park (72 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.
