cuckoo-shrike

cuckoo-shrike, any of several Old World songbirds of the family Campephagidae (q.v.; order Passeriformes). In the genus Coracina (including Edolisoma), found from Africa to Pacific islands, the plumage is gray, often with cuckoolike barring or a shrikelike mask (sexes similar); many of the 41 species are known as graybirds. An example is the large, or black-faced, cuckoo-shrike (C. novaehollandiae), about 30 cm (12 inches) long, of India and China to Australasia. In Campephaga, mainly an African genus, males are glossy black, females brownish and barred. An example is the 20-centimetre (8-inch) black cuckoo-shrike (C. phoenicea, including sulphurata), which has red- and yellow-shouldered races. African forms, sometimes separately classified as Lobotos, have bill wattles. The ground cuckoo-shrike (Pteropodocys maxima) of Australia is the only cuckoo-shrike that is not arboreal.