• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic note
Boesman and Collar (2019) establish Cercococcyx lemaireae as a split from C. mechowi based on voice, a narrow hybrid zone and shorter tail. Pending reaction from the ornithological community to splits based entirely on voice, it appears appropriate to accept the validity of these new species given their meeting of the Tobias criteria.

Taxonomic source(s)
Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International. 2020. Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 5. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v5_Dec20.zip.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2020	Near Threatened	A2abc+3c+4abc
2016	Not Recognised
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	does not normally occur in forest
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	1,450,000 km2
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	unknown	-	-	-
Population trend	decreasing	-	inferred	2009-2022
Rate of change over the past 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	20-29%	-	-	-
Rate of change over the future 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	20-29%	-	-	-
Rate of change over the past & future 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	20-29%	-	-	-
Generation length	4.3 years	-	-	-

Population justification: The global population size for this newly-split species has not been quantified.

Trend justification: This species is suspected to be declining. This species was considered to be fairly common in Liberia in the late 1960s/ early 1970s (Colston & Curry-Lindahl 1986), and in the 1980s (Gatter 1997). However, surveys in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 found only a single record in a large area of apparently suitable habitat. It was therefore concluded by Dowsett-Lemaire & Phalan (2013) that either the species is a seasonal caller, previously misidentified, or that the species has decreased. Additionally, the species may have been extirpated from Bia National Park in Ghana (Dowsett-Lemaire & Dowsett 2014). Furthermore, a study in Ghana by Arcilla et al., (2015) had a capture rate of 0.11 C. lemaireae per 10,000 net-metre-hours in 1993-1995, and this fell to a capture rate of zero in 2008-2010. This species is likely sensitive to habitat degradation, and legal and illegal logging are continuing throughout its range (B. Phalan in litt. 2020). The rate of decline of this species has therefore not been directly quantified, but due to uncertainty, the rate has been precautionarily placed in the 20-29% band.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Cameroon	extant	native	yes
Côte d'Ivoire	extant	native	yes
Ghana	extant	native	yes
Guinea	extant	native	yes
Liberia	extant	native	yes
Nigeria	extant	native	yes
Sierra Leone	extant	native	yes
Togo	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name
Angola	Luachimo River (Chitato)
Cameroon	Bakossi mountains
Cameroon	Banyang Mbo Wildlife Sanctuary
Cameroon	Korup National Park
Cameroon	Mont Manengouba
Central African Republic	Zémongo Faunal Reserve
Congo	Léfini Faunal Reserve

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland	major	resident
Altitude		Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Biological resource use	Logging & wood harvesting - Unintentional effects: (large scale) [harvest]	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Medium Impact: 6
		Stresses Species disturbance, Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Whistling Long-tailed Cuckoo Cercococcyx lemaireae. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/whistling-long-tailed-cuckoo-cercococcyx-lemaireae on 01/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 01/12/2024.