Ceuthmochares aereus
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The blue malkoha or chattering yellowbill (Ceuthmochares aereus) is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It was formerly conspecific with the green malkoha until split in 2016. It is widely distributed across the African tropical rainforest.
The blue malkoha has a greyish belly, head and throat and a heavy yellow bill but subspecies display some differences in plumage colouration. C. aereus aereus has a greenish and blue tail, wings and back, while C. aereus flavirostris has a blue tail, wings and back.
The blue malkoha feeds primarily on insects, particularly caterpillars, beetles, grasshoppers and crickets; it will also take frogs, slugs, fruit, seeds and leaves. It moves through the tangled vegetation with a series of small hops, snatching prey as it travels. It will accompany other birds and squirrels, taking the insects flushed by them.
Unlike some other cuckoos the blue malkoha is not a brood parasite, instead it cares for its own young. Two white and creamy eggs are laid in a nest that is a rough mass of sticks suspended around 2–5 m above the ground. Both parents care for the young.
The blue malkoha is an uncommon species and rarely observed due to... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Odzala-Kokoua National Park | 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo | |
| 2 | Semuliki National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 3 | Kibale National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 4 | Taï National Park | 🇨🇮 Ivory Coast | |
| 5 | Nyungwe National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 6 | Bwindi Impenetrable National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 7 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 8 | Virunga National Park | 🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo | |
| 9 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 10 | Lake Mburo National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Abidjan | 🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Blue Malkoha sighting in Virunga National Park on a given day, based on 19 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 198th most-seen of the 316 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.
May
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Blue Malkoha in Virunga National Park on a given day, against under 5% in August to April, the lowest months. That is one of Virunga National Park's wettest months, with about 250 mm of rain against 15 mm in January.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blue Malkoha sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
8th of 10
Of the 10 parks where we can rate Blue Malkoha sightings, Virunga National Park ranks 8th at under 5%. The best odds are in Odzala-Kokoua National Park (Republic of the Congo, about 20%), Semuliki National Park (Uganda, about 20%) and Kibale National Park (Uganda, about 20%).
Same family: Cuculidae
The closest relatives of the Blue Malkoha that you can see in Virunga National Park (family Cuculidae, Cuckoos) are White-browed Coucal (about 30%), Red-chested 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 Blue Malkoha is recorded against all the birds logged in Virunga 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.
