lesser cuckoo

Critiques [Translate]

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• elefantino (13731)
• [2008-06-06 22:49]

It's a cuckoo family but I don't know wich subspecies.

Love the shot, bye, Andrea

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• cuckooroller (0)
• [2008-09-22 11:28]

Paul,
The Cuculus of Africa are sometimes confusing. In this case, in this location, there are three possibles morphologically just considering that we have red showing around the throat. They are Cuculus gularis; Cuculus canorus; and Cuculus solitarius. We can throw out the solitarius for a couple of reasons, and they include the fact that in this species the red forms a pectoral bib and the transverse barring is not visible through this bib, and also because the throat is greyish. This particular bird is Cuculus canorus, adult male. I separate it from gularis on the basis of the ventral transverse barring being farther apart in this bird, because the orange bill base does not extend onto the base of the culmen, and because the rectrices demonstrate only a slight spotting, and if it were gularis there should be visible on the lateral rectrical edges a whitish transverse barring distally. The poliocephalus, on the basis of the morphology of this particular bird, can not be contemplated for several reasons.