The Gabon coucal (''Centropus anselli'') is a species of

cuckoo Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes . The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separ ...

in the family

Cuculidae Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes . The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separa ...

. It is mainly found in

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the nort ...

but also occurs in neighboring areas of

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

, the

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

, the western Congo Basin and Equatorial Guinea.

Description

The Gabon coucal is a large-sized species growing to in length. The sexes are similar, the adult having the head, sides of neck and back black, glossed with purple, the lower back and rump whitish buff, barred with black, the wings dark brown and dark chestnut and the tail blackish-bronze glossed green. The underparts are rufous-buff or tawny. The eyes are reddish, the beak black and the feet black. The juvenile is similar to the adult but the black colouring is mostly replaced by dark brown and is unglossed, and the wings are heavily barred and rufous.

Distribution and habitat

The Gabon coucal is native to tropical western central Africa. Its range includes Gabon and the surrounding countries of southern Cameroon, southwestern Central African Republic, western Congo, central Democratic Republic of Congo and northwestern Angola. It inhabits

virgin forest ''Virgin Forest'' is a 1985 Filipino period film directed by Peque Gallaga. A self-described B-movie, it stars Sarsi Emmanuel, who plays a barrio lass of Chinese ancestry; Miguel Rodriguez, as a Filipino-Spanish illustrado; and, Abel Jurado, wh ...

, secondary forest, forest edges,

swampland A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

and abandoned farmland.

Ecology

The Gabon coucal is a skulking bird, not easy to see in the thick undergrowth, but it can be heard calling, particularly early and late in the day. It forages, mostly on the ground, feeding on grasshoppers,

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

molluscs Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is estim ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s, lizards and small

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

s. It also scavenges around villages and encampments. Breeding takes place mostly in the rainy season, or in wetter regions, during the drier interlude between two wet seasons.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1007166 Gabon coucal Birds of Central Africa Gabon coucal Taxonomy articles created by Polbot