In 1747 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the great spotted cuckoo in the second volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds.

Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a specimen that had been shot in Gibraltar and sent to the English naturalist Mark Catesby in London.

Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Cuculus glandarius and cited Edwards' work.

[3] The great spotted cuckoo is now placed in the genus Clamator that was introduced by German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1829.

It feeds on insects, spiders, small reptiles and hairy caterpillars, which are distasteful to many birds.