''Clamator'' is a genus of large brood-parasitic cuckoos with crests and graduated tails. The genus was erected by German naturalist

Johann Jakob Kaup Johann Jakob von Kaup (10 April 1803 – 4 July 1873) was a German naturalist. A proponent of natural philosophy, he believed in an innate mathematical order in nature and he attempted biological classifications based on the Quinarian system. Kaup ...

in 1829 with the

great spotted cuckoo The great spotted cuckoo (''Clamator glandarius'') is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, the Cuculiformes, which also includes the roadrunners, the anis and the coucals. It is widely spread throughout Africa and the Mediterranean Basin. It i ...

(''Clamator glandarius'') as the type species. The name ''Clamator'' is Latin for "shouter" from ''clamare'', "to shout". There are four species: ''Clamator'' cuckoos are found in warmer parts of southern Europe and Asia, and in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. These are birds of warm open scrubby habitats, but some species are at least partially migratory, leaving for warmer and wetter areas in winter. These are large cuckoos, all at least long, with broad chestnut wings and long narrow tails. They are strikingly patterned with black, white and brown

plumage Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...

. The sexes are similar but the juvenile plumages are distinctive. The two African species each also have two distinct colour morphs, light and dark. All the ''Clamator'' cuckoos are

brood parasite Brood parasites are animals that rely on others to raise their young. The strategy appears among birds, insects and fish. The brood parasite manipulates a host, either of the same or of another species, to raise its young as if it were its own ...

s, which lay a single

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

in the nests of medium-sized hosts, such as

magpie Magpies are birds of the Corvidae family. Like other members of their family, they are widely considered to be intelligent creatures. The Eurasian magpie, for instance, is thought to rank among the world's most intelligent creatures, and is one ...

s, starlings,

shrike Shrikes () are passerine birds of the family Laniidae. The family is composed of 34 species in four genera. The family name, and that of the largest genus, ''Lanius'', is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also know ...

s, laughingthrushes,

bulbul The bulbuls are members of a family, Pycnonotidae, of medium-sized passerine songbirds, which also includes greenbuls, brownbuls, leafloves, and bristlebills. The family is distributed across most of Africa and into the Middle East, tropical As ...

s and

babbler Babbler may refer to: * Old World babbler, a large family of mostly Old World passerine birds * Australo-Papuan babbler, passerine birds endemic to Australia-New Guinea * Babbler (software) Babbler is a French software company founded in Septem ...

s, depending on location. Unlike the common cuckoo, neither the hen nor the hatched chick of ''Clamator'' species evict the host's eggs, but the host's young often die because they cannot compete successfully with the cuckoo for food. These are noisy birds, with persistent and loud calls. They feed on large insects, with hairy

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...

s, which are distasteful to many birds, being a speciality.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q541124 Bird genera