The grey cuckooshrike is an uncommon local resident that likes a canopy of evergreen forest or coastal bush. They are found from Cape Agulhas up the East coast, northward through KZN and the Eastern escarpment of South Africa.
Their habits are poorly known, but usually seen solitary or in pairs. Perching still for long periods from where they hawk insects especially caterpillars. They also forage on trunks, branches and leaves.
These cuckoo shrikes are usually silent, but have a high pitched drawn out peee – oooo call and also high pitched chittering and trilling notes.
Breeding is from November to December. The nest is a small shallow bowl of lichen bound with spider web and plastered to a sloping fork or stout branch of a high forest tree.
One or two spotted eggs on a light green or bluish shell are laid. The incubation and nestling periods are unrecorded and the young remain with the parents until the next breeding season.
The Zulu name is iKlebedwane and in Afrikaans die bloukatakoeroe.
