Klaas's Cuckoo

Klaas's Cuckoo
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Cuculiformes
Family:	Cuculidae
Genus:	Chrysococcyx
Species:	C. klaas
Binomial name
Chrysococcyx klaas (Stephens, 1815)

The Klaas's Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx klaas) is a species of cuckoo in the Cuculidae family. It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The species was named by French explorer François Le Vaillant after his Khoikhoi servant. Le Vaillant was the only colonial biologist to name a bird species after local people.

Description

Klaas's Cuckoo is 16–18 cm in length. The species exhibits sexual dimorphism. Males have a glossy green body with few markings and plain white underparts. Females have a bronze-brown body, greenish wing coverts and faintly barred white underparts. Viewed in flight, the male is largely white with dark primaries and females appear mostly brown. Males and females both have a small white post-ocular patch.

References

• BirdLife International (2004). Chrysococcyx klaas. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 24 July 2007.
• Beolens, B & Watkins. M, (2004). Whose Bird?: Common Bird Names and the People They Commemorate Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300103595