Verreaux's coua (''Coua verreauxi'') 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 somet ...

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 someti ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

. According to a BBC documentary, it is found only near a salt lake in the southern part of the island. The lake is 16 km long but only a couple of metres deep. The area has been drying out for the last 40,000 years and the organisms living here have become adapted to conserve water.BBC, ''Zoo Quest: Island of Marvels,'' Part 3
Video clip, 0:06:50 – 0:08:35, Verreaux's coua
/ref> The bird's name commemorates French ornithologist and collector

Jules Verreaux Jules Pierre Verreaux (24 August 1807 – 7 September 1873) was a French botanist and ornithologist and a professional collector of and trader in natural history specimens. He was the brother of Édouard Verreaux and nephew of Pierre Antoine Delal ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

is subtropical or tropical dry

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominance (ecology), dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbaceous plant, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally o ...

. The birds are found in southern part of the spiny forest zone. They live in coastal

euphorbia ''Euphorbia'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family (biology), family Euphorbiaceae. Euphorbias range from tiny annual plants to large and long-lived trees, with perhaps the tallest being ''Eu ...

scrub, and are most active at dawn and dusk. Birders listen for its descending series of loud contact calls, "corick-corick-corick-corick". A sympatric species is the crested coua, ''C. cristata.''BirdLife International (2011) Species factsheet: ''Coua verreauxi''. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org
Retrieved 2011-12-04.

Identification

The species is described thus: "A small, greyish arboreal coua. Overall mid-grey, whitish on lower breast and belly, and darker on flight-feathers. Tail dark greyish, long and tipped whitish on outer feathers. Head with long, dark-tipped crest, pale blue bare skin around eye and black bill."

Distribution and habitat

Verreaux's coua is endemic to the southwestern tip of Madagascar within the spiny forest zone. Its typical habitat is thick scrub on coral rag but it also occurs in other habitat types including within degraded areas.

Behaviour

The bird forages for invertebrates among trees and bushes and on the ground. It also eats Cassia fruit. It occurs from sea-level to . Little is known of its reproductive habits but males are sometimes seen singing from the tops of trees in November suggesting that this is the breeding season.

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has rated Verreaux's coua as being "

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

". It has a small range and is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

. The main threat it faces is the cutting of trees in the scrubland where it lives to make

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ca ...

which happens especially alongside roads and near towns. Nevertheless, it is quite common in suitable habitats.

References

External links

BirdLife International, Verreaux's Coua fact sheet

Internet Bird Collection, Verreaux's Coua sightings and recordings

Photo taken in ''Parc National Tsimanampesotse''

images of Verreaux's Coua, on Flickr
{{DEFAULTSORT:coua, Verreaux's Verreaux's coua Verreaux's coua Verreaux's coua Taxonomy articles created by Polbot