New bird spotted in Karoo National Park

• News & Highlights

Cape Town - SANParks Honorary Ranger Japie Claassen has spotted the iconic Common Cuckoo in the Karoo National Park, enriching the already abundant birdlife in the park with one more interesting sighting option.

Claassen, from Karoo Birding Safaris, says that while patrolling along the Park’s boundary fence on the Loxton Road outside Beaufort West at the end of January, he stumbled across the beautiful Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) and formerly known as the European Cuckoo – the first sighting of this bird in the Park.

The Common Cuckoo has been the centrepiece of cuckoo clocks since the early 1600’s – with its signature call striking on the hour, every hour.

Claassen says they are relatively quiet - not heard often in South Africa. They originate in Europe and are seldom seen in the Karoo areas. They feed on large, hairy black and white caterpillars, usually found on Acacia trees.

According to Fayroush Ludick of the Karoo National Park, the cuckoo could possibly have found the park a favourable new residence due to good rains the area has had recently.

According to biodiversityexplorer.org, Common Cuckoos are typically only found in the northern Eastern Cape, higher parts of KwaZulu-Natal and abundantly on the borders between Limpopo, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

In November 2014, Traveller24 reported four new birds species were spotted in the Karoo National Park by birder and Honorary ranger Japie Claassen.