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Blue Cuckooshrike Cyanograucalus azureus Scientific name definitions

Barry Taylor
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated January 1, 2005

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Originally Appeared in

HBW Alive

Field Identification

21 cm; 43–51 g. Distinctive. Male is entirely brilliant glossy blue, except for black forehead, preorbital region and band above eye, bluish-black chin, ultramarine throat, black rectrices (central pair edged blue), and black alula, primaries and secondaries (edged blue); iris brownish-red to dark crimson; bill and legs black. Female is similar to male, but greener, less brilliant blue, with throat as underparts. Juvenile is like female, but belly feathers edged white, secondaries and primary coverts edged white and mottled blue-grey, tertials with distal black and white bars, tail tipped white, eye brownish-red; immature not fully described.

Systematics History

Monotypic.

Subspecies

Monotypic.

Distribution

Sierra Leone and SE Guinea E, discontinuously, to S Ghana and (rare) W Togo, S Nigeria and SW Cameroon, S to Gabon, SW Congo (Mayombe) and adjacent NW Angola (Cabinda); also SW Central African Republic and N, E & C DRCongo.

Habitat

Lowland primary forest and mature secondary forest; also open woodland and sometimes clearings; rarely descends to undergrowth and edges. In E DRCongo occurs below 1190 m, thus at lower elevations than those occupied by Ceblepyris graueri.

Movement

Sedentary.

Diet and Foraging

Eats mainly caterpillars (Lepidoptera) and grasshoppers (Orthoptera); also termite alates (Isoptera), beetles (Coleoptera), snails (Gastropoda); occasionally fruit, such as Croton. Forages in foliage of upper canopy and treetops; sallies like a flycatcher (Muscicapidae), snatching prey in the air and from foliage; also gleans while running or hopping along branches and vines, and takes prey from undersides of leaves. Joins mixed-species bird parties, especially in dry season.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Relatively vocal. Calls include a hoarse, nasal “chwee-ep” or “chuee”, short “chupr” and a series of “tuk” notes. Song in Gabon is a clear, powerful, downslurred “peeeoo” prefaced by a short “chup”; calls well spaced, and often punctuated by conversational “chup-puji” or “wee-chup” calls or by chattering “chacha­cha­chacha”. Song in Ivory Coast more nasal, a mixture of upslurred and downslurred notes, e.g. “pooeet-pooit-pooeet-peeoo”, interspersed with sharp fast chatter and nasal “wer-tit”.

Breeding

Mainly Nov–Mar, when rainfall relatively low; breeding activity in Jan and Mar in Liberia, Feb and May in Ghana, Feb in Nigeria and Oct–Feb in Gabon; breeding condition in Sept in Angola. Monogamous; probably territorial. Nest a loose bowl of lichens and spider webs on horizontal tree branch. No other information.

Conservation Status

Conservation status on Birdlife LC Least Concern
Not globally threatened. Rare to uncommon in some areas. Was locally frequent to common in some parts of range in 1980s, when estimated density in NE Gabon was 5–7 pairs/km². Known range fragmented. Has suffered considerably from habitat destruction. Occurs in some protected areas, including Taï Forest National Park, in Ivory Coast, and Korup National Park, in Cameroon.
Distribution of the Blue Cuckooshrike - Range Map
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  • Year-round
  • Migration
  • Breeding
  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the Blue Cuckooshrike

eBird and Macaulay Library

Recommended Citation

Taylor, B. (2020). Blue Cuckooshrike (Cyanograucalus azureus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.blucus1.01
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