[2][3] Its range covers most of sub-Saharan Africa, including Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, DRC, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

[5] The diet can be supplemented with some fruit, and the African emerald cuckoo often forages in the middle and top layers of the canopy.

Female African emerald cuckoos lay eggs in the nests of other bird species.

[4] The cuckoo's distribution is 11,400,000 km (7,100,000 mi)[4] across sub-Saharan Africa, and subsequently the species is not in any immediate threat of decline.

[8] However, there is some concern about habitat reduction and fragmentation of riparian areas and lowland forests in the upcoming years.