As a follow up to the previous posts on the subject of birds with striking eyes – here’s a look at another species, familiar to South African birders, with eyes that beg your attention –

Burchell’s Coucal (Vleiloerie)

Centropus burchellii

This is a species best known for its bubbling call from the depths of dense bush or trees – a call which Roberts VII describes as “like water being poured from a bottle”.

And that may be the only clue you get to its existence until, one day, you actually get a glimpse of the bird as it flies heavily from one bush then crashes clumsily into the next one and disappears again. This is a bird that does not crave attention as it goes about its daily routine of searching on the ground and in bushes for just about anything it can lay its claws on – rodents, reptiles, other birds, nestlings, frogs, snails, insects … etc

Distribution

Birds of the World (see footnote) – lumps two species together with a combined distribution across Africa and a narrow stretch of Arabia as per the map below.

Southern African birdlists separate the two species into :

Burchell’s Coucal — Centropus burchelli – with distribution from south-east Tanzania through Mozambique to the Western Cape in South Africa and including south-east Botswana

White-browed Coucal – Centropus superciliosus – with distribution from Yemen, south-west Arabia, Ethiopia south to Zambia, Angola and southern Africa

Getting the Photo

As mentioned above, this is a fairly secretive species so when the opportunity arises one has to be quick off the mark to get a decent photo

I was fortunate enough to have such an opportunity recently while atlasing in the area east of Friemersheim in the southern Cape. I was driving slowly along a dirt road and had just passed a small stream when I spotted movement in the long grass at the roadside and stopped to look further.

I soon saw what had attracted my attention – a Burchell’s Coucal making its way through the lush grass and close enough to the road for a reasonably close-up photo. That sighting had me grabbing my camera and reversing at the same time to get into a position where I could aim the camera through the passenger side window, which I was busy opening while doing all of the above (this just shows men CAN multi-task – provided the motivation is there of course).

Suffice to say I believe my efforts paid off and I was very pleased with the results!

What does Faansie say?

The Firefinch app produced by the incomparable Faansie Peacock always has interesting facts about birds and in this case it mentions that Coucals have stiff, spiky breast feathers – which can be seen in the above photo.

Also that they are known as ‘rainbirds’ because they sing just before, during and after rain

Footnote : The website Birds of the World published by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology provides a wealth of information on birds worldwide and the good news is that access to the website is free for Southern African residents – all that is required is to create an account which can be done at : https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/home