Meet Diederik Cuckoo, One Of The Most Beautiful Bird In The World

This article is about Diederik cuckoo (Chrysococcyx caprius). I wrote it for two reasons: to talk a bit about beauty of this amazing bird and to illustrate something about these birds biology. They are more than just pretty colours. Diederik cuckoo are inter-African migrants that are coming back to SA around now (October), and their breeding season is about to get started. So it is a good time to learn something about them.

Within the first three days of hatching, the cuckoo chick eats any other eggs or chicks. It is said that it does this only if the eggs or chicks weren't present at the time of laying, but I'd like to know how it 'knows' this. The Diederik cuckoo chick is fed by the host in the nest for 19-22 days, and remains with its host parents and is fed by them for about 21 more days. I don't know how widespread this is, but I have seen immature Diederik cuckoos up until late April or early May. Presumably, they tend to stay in our area a bit longer than the adults.