ABSTRACT
The cuckoos are brood parasites whereas the coucals are not. The status and distribution of some of the cuckoos are obscured by the facts that most are migratory and difficult to detect unless calling or migrating, and that some have Afrotropical, Palearctic, Oriental and Malagasy breeding populations (Br). The Black and White Cuckoo appears to be a migrant in most if not all areas but, as with the Great Spotted Cuckoo, overall status is confused by the occurrence of locally breeding birds, along with nonbreeding migrants from regions possibly as diverse as the North (N) and South tropics, N and C India, and the East Palearctic. A generally shy, secretive and scarce bird, that may well be overlooked in its rather drab non-breeding plumage: hence D1C1 and, probably, the moderately high proportion of pre-1970 records. It inhabits marshes and seasonally flooded grasslands with only limited tree and shrub growth, and is more purely a swamp species than the Blue-headed Coucal.
