Great Spotted Cuckoo

Clamator glandarius

Other Names

    Coucou geai   Häherkuckuck   Críalo Europeo, Críalo Español   Skatgök   Kuifkoekoek   Cuculo dal ciuffo

World: Mediterranean region; from Turkey, east through Iraq to Iran and South to Egypt and Near East; Africa from Senegal East to Ethiopia and Somalia and South to South Africa. Occasional wanderers to northern Europe.

Kenya: Mostly absent from the coast and the eastern lowlands, elsewhere widespread but uncommon.

A distinctive cuckoo of open woodland, scrub and cultivated country. Most birds seen in Kenya are migrants from the northern tropics between October and March but does breed in Kenya, using Pied Crows and Starlings that nest in holes in trees or in rocks as hosts.