SITE FIDELITY IN A SUMMER MIGRANT MADAGASCAR CUCKOO IN KWAZULU-NATAL

While a regular non-breeding migrant to East Africa (Zimmerman et al, 1996; Sinclair & Ryan, 2003), the Madagascar Cuckoo Cuculus rochii is regarded as an very rare vagrant to southern Africa with only a handful of records since the late 1800s (Sinclair et al, 2002; Hockey et al, 2005).

The paucity of records may be a result of confusion with the very similar Lesser Cuckoo C. poliocephalus with which it was at one stage considered conspecific (Rowan, 1983; Zimmerman et al, 1996) and from which it is very difficult to tell in the field. Nonetheless the Madagascar Cuckoo is widely understood to be a non-breeding visitor from Madagascar to East Africa in the austral winter over the period April to September, while the Lesser Cuckoo is present over the summer period from November to April having migrated from its Asian breeding grounds (Zimmerman et al, 1996; Sinclair & Ryan, 2003). The southern limits of the non-breeding range of the Madagascar Cuckoo are largely defined as being the northern parts of Mozambique and adjacent southern Malawi. Of the very few accepted records for the southern African subregion are two from the summer months at a time when the species should have returned to breed in Madagascar (Sinclair & Langrand, 2003; Sinclair & Ryan, 2003; Hockey et al, 2005).

The four published South African records to date relate to three individual birds. A specimen record from Durban in the late 1800s was initially identified as a Lesser Cuckoo but has since been corrected to a Madagascar Cuckoo, a newspaper report of a bird from KwaZulu-Natal in 1986 remains unconfirmed, and the most widely accepted record is of a bird seen over two consecutive seasons at Mala Mala Game Reserve in the Mpumulanga Province adjacent to the Kruger National Park (Hockey et al, 2005). This bird, presumably the same individual, was seen over the period November 1986 to February 1987 and again the following summer over the period November 1987 to February 1988 (Hockey et al, 2005).

Apparent site fidelity in migrant Cuculus cuckoos is not unknown and has been observed in a rufous morph Common Cuckoo C. canorus that returned to a defined area at Londolozi over the consecutive summers of 2001/02, 2002/03 and 2003/04 (Londolozi Rangers, 2002; Anon, 2003). Here I’d like to record similar behaviour in a Madagascar Cuckoo with repeated sightings of what is assumed to be the same bird in a very small defined area of northern KwaZulu-Natal.

A calling Madagascar Cuckoo was first heard but not seen on about the 8th of February 2004 in the riparian woodland along the Mzinene River in the southern parts of &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve in northern KwaZulu-Natal. Given the rarity of records for South Africa and the fact that the species is known to be a non-breeding winter visitor we regarded this as a vagrant bird and despite two dedicated attempts to relocate it in the general area we were not able to do so. The bird was not recorded again during 2004 or 2005 and our second record, and first actual sighting, was only obtained on the 5th of February 2006 when what is assumed to be the same bird was located by call in the same location as 2004 (about 3km upstream along the Mzinene River from where we had heard the bird calling in 2004). On this occasion we were more vigilant in relocating the bird and had daily sightings until the 8th of February and regular sightings thereafter until the end of the month. Given lodge occupancies we were not able to continue with intensive searching to determine when the bird left the area. Later that year, on 17 October 2006, we again heard the distinctive call of the species and located the bird on the same stretch of Mzinene River. The bird remained in this very localised area along a 1.5km stretch of river and as a result of its very vocal and relaxed nature was seen and photographed on a regular basis right through until its departure towards the end of January 2007. On 22 October 2007, the bird was again back and calling along the same stretch of river in at least its fourth summer season in the area.

The rarity of the species in southern Africa, the atypical migration pattern and the very localised nature of the records strongly suggest that the same individual bird is involved in each of the sightings recorded here. The fact that it is apparently absent in the winter months and present, and calling, over the summer months when the population is thought to be breeding in Madagascar, indicates that this bird has for probably the past four seasons employed something of an unusual north-south migration path. Together with the above-mentioned Mala Mala sightings it also suggests that any subsequent summer records in South or southern Africa could possibly be repeated with birds returning to the same geographic locations in ensuing years.

References
ANON. 2003. Interesting bird observations at Londolozi. Ecological Journal 5: 111-112.

HOCKEY, PAR, DEAN, WRJ & RYAN, PG. (eds.). 2005. Roberts – Birds of Southern Africa. VIIth edition. The Trustees of the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund, Cape Town. p208.

LONDOLOZI RANGERS. 2002. Rufous morph European Cuckoo returns. Ecological Journal 4: 131.

ROWAN, MK. 1983. The Doves, Parrots, Louries and Cuckoos of Southern Africa. David Philip, Cape Town.

SINCLAIR, I & LANGRAND, O. 2003. Birds of the Indian Ocean Islands. Struik, Cape Town.

SINCLAIR, I & RYAN, P. 2003. Birds of Africa South of the Sahara. Struik, Cape Town.

SINCLAIR, I, HOCKEY, P & TARBOTON, W. 2002. Birds of Southern Africa. Struik, Cape Town.

ZIMMERMAN, DA, TURNER, DA & PEARSON, DJ. 1996. Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania. Russel Friedman Books, Halfway House

Posted: Birds by Daryl Dell, Date: 13 December 2010