Home Invader

Diederik Cuckoo

- Derek Keats

The loud, unmistakable ‘deed-deed-deed-deed-er-ick’ call of the male Diederik Cuckoo Chrysococcyx caprius is a characteristic sound of southern Africa’s spring and summer landscape. Indeed, so distinctive is the call that the species’ common name is taken from it. The bird’s scientific species name, caprius, is thought to be a misprint of either cuprea (coppery) or capensis (from the Cape).

An intra-African migrant that follows the rains, the Diederik Cuckoo arrives in the subregion in September and October, possibly to coincide with the breeding season of its hosts. It belongs to the Cuculidae and, like many other members of that family, it’s a brood parasite, laying its egg in the nest of another species for the chick to be raised by the host until it can fend for itself.

Male and female Diederik Cuckoos differ in appearance, the males being more brightly coloured and having more distinct markings whereas the females are plainer and less conspicuous – although still with a certain beauty of their own. While a female will defend a territory within a colony of potential hosts, the males range across such territories, each one competing with other males for breeding access to the occupying female and attempting to convince the female that he is a suitable mate.