About Cuculus solitarius Stephens, 1815
The red-chested cuckoo (scientific name: Cuculus solitarius Stephens, 1815) is a medium-sized cuckoo that reaches approximately 31 cm (12.2 in) in length. Males have slate-grey upper parts, a pale grey throat, pale grey sides of the head, and a dark grey tail with white tips. Their breast is rufous or cinnamon, often marked with barring, and their belly is creamy-white or pale buff. Females are similar in appearance to males, but their breast colour is duller, and they have variable amounts of barring. This species is distributed across Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In Southern Africa, it is a common breeding migrant, found across the region except for the drier west. Its preferred habitat is woodland, and it is typically encountered alone rather than in groups with other members of its species.
