Tuesday 19 April 2016

Great Spotted Cuckoo (Clamator glandarius)

OTHER NAMES: N/A
Latin Etymology: Clamator ("shouter") glandarius ("of acorns")
                                                     Great Spotted Cuckoo (Clamator glandariusat Oropesa, Spain - April 2016

Featured Subspecies: N/A
Weight: 140-170g  /  Length: 35-39cm  /  Wingspan: 58-60cm
NO UK STATUS IUCN Red List: Least Concern

The Great Spotted Cuckoo is like it's more familiar relative, a brood parasite, although the range of this species is much more restricted.  In Europe the majority of it's range is in Spain, Portugal and Turkey, though it also has some small population in a few other countries.  As with the Common Cuckoo, it Winters in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is apparently fairly tricky to see though; there is a fairly limited window between the time it arrives and then heads up into the mountains to feed.  I saw this individual from a moving vehicle unfortunately, hence the terrible quality of the photo, a pair were perched on a wire but unfortunately they were gone by the time we turned round to have another look, though we did see them clearly on the first pass even if the photo is poor.

Related Species:
Order: Cuculiformes
Family: Cuculidae
Genus: Clamator
Subspecies: none - monotypic


 - Sighting Locations -
SPAIN - Spanish - Críalo
Scarce and Local Summer Migrant
 - MADRID 2016 TRIP: Two seen briefly from moving car at Oropesa 

Further Notes: 
BirdForum OpusIUCN Red ListRSPB, Wikipedia, Xeno-canto

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