A bird with an average body length of 32 cm, weighs about 110 g. This species is very similar to the common cuckoo Cuculus canorus , which in summer lives in Eurasia. They differ only in details, the African common cuckoo has a different distribution of yellow and black flowers on its beak. In the African species, a red morph is not found in females, but sometimes females have a reddish-brown spot on the upper chest. Immature birds are dull gray, and are not red. White spots on the tail are wider than ordinary cuckoos [2] [3] .
This species is found in most of sub-Saharan Africa. This is a monotypic species with no division into subspecies (previously, he himself was considered as a subspecies of C. canorus ). This is a bird of semi-open biotopes with woody vegetation. African common cuckoo avoids dense tropical forests, but also avoids semi-deserts and other arid areas [2] .
Parenting types
Like other species of the genus Cuculus, the African common cuckoo is a nesting parasite. The list of its rearing birds is more than 10 species [1] . Most often, eggs of this species are found in nests of mourning drongos Dicrurus adsimilis (25 cases in South Africa , Namibia , Zimbabwe and Zambia ) [4] . According to Friedman, of the 16 finds of this cuckoo's egg, 4 were in Lanius collaris , 3 in Dicrurus adsimilis and Laniarius ferrugineus, and 1 in Pycnonotus barbatus , Erythropygia paena , Erythropygia leucophrys , Passer griseus , Lamprotornis sp., Malaconot . The only time, more than 150 years ago, an egg of this species was discovered by the minted redstart Cossypha caffra [5] .
In Zambia, the percentage of infected mourning drongo nests reaches 8% [4] . However, in Ghana for 5 years of observation of 160 nests of Corvinella corvina, a cuckoo egg was planted only in one [6] .
Eggs
Egg laying period of at least 9 weeks. The main background of the eggs is white, bluish or greenish. There is a pattern of small brownish-violet specks and pale blurry gray-purple spots. The color is very similar to the color of the drongo eggs [1] . In the vicinity of Johannesburg ( South Africa ), eggs of this species in the nests of the shrike mimicked well under the color of the eggs of the host [7] . The egg size is 24.9 × 17.6 mm (n = 6) [1] .
Chick Development
Hatching naked, skin dark purple, orange pharynx. Eyes open and fly-brush appear on the 8th day. Foster parents feed the chick in the nest for 20–23 days, and feed it for several more weeks after departure [4] .
