Family Cuckoos (Cuculidae)
Least Concern
Black-throated Coucal (Centropus leucogaster)
Taxonomy
French: Coucal à ventre blanc German: Weißbauchkuckuck Spanish: Cucal ventriblanco
Taxonomy:
Polophilus leucogaster
Leach
, 1814,New Holland; error = Ghana
.
Subspecies and Distribution
C. l. leucogaster
(Leach, 1814) – Black-throated Coucal – S Senegal and Guinea-Bissau E to SE Nigeria.
C. l. efulenensis
Sharpe, 1904 – SW Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and N Gabon.
C. l. neumanni
Alexander, 1908 – Neumann's Coucal – NE DRCongo; recorded once in extreme W Uganda (Semliki National Park#R).
Descriptive notes
46–58 cm; male 293 g, female 336 g. One of largest of African coucals. Adult black above and from head to breast; back barred buff, tail glossed blue, wings rufous-... read more
Voice
Song deep, bubbling, 10–20 notes slowing in tempo and falling in pitch, middle notes well... read more
Habitat
Dense undergrowth in forest edge, forest remnants, secondary forest, thickets, dense grass,... read more
Food and feeding
Insects, including caterpillars, spiders, beetles, grasshoppers; also snails and frogs. Feeds on or near ground.
Breeding
Breeds Dec in Sierra Leone, Nov in Liberia, Aug in Ghana, Jun–Nov in Cameroon, Mar–Dec in Uelle region of N Zaire. Nest a large... read more
Movements
Resident.
Status and conservation
Not globally threatened. Fairly common in forests of lower Casamance in S Senegal; common in forest habitat in Nigeria, though rarely seen because of its skulking habits; in... read more
Range complementary to that of C. anselli, suggesting that the two may be sister-species, a possibility supported by mtDNA data#R. Race neumanni has been considered to be more closely related to C. anselli. Further, neumanni has been proposed as a distinct species#R, on basis mainly of size, but size overlap occurs and, moreover, size differences are greatly exaggerated in illustration in HBW (in fact, neumanni is only 1 cm less in wing and 2 cm less in tail than nominate#R); such treatment appears inappropriate, at least on present evidence#R. Race from Cameroon and Gabon sometimes misspelt efulensis (e.g. in HBW), but correct original spelling is efulenensis#R. Three subspecies recognized.