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Banded Ground Cuckoo - BirdForum Opus

Photo by Dušan Brinkhuizen
Bilsa, Ecuador, October 2011
Neomorphus radiolosus

Identification

46 cm

  • Pronounced glossy blue-black crest and hindneck
  • Large bare blue, ocular area
  • Black back
  • Black underparts buffy-white scaled or banded
  • Chestnut wings and lower back
  • Long tail; blackish glossed green
  • Bill dark above and yellow below

Immature similar but with ochraceous scaling and lacks bluish head sheen.

Similar species

Rufous-vented Ground Cuckoo has a yellow bill, is bronzy-brown above, glossed green wings and a narrow, broken black chest-band.

Distribution

South America: found in the humid lowlands of south-western Colombia and north-western Ecuador.
A rare and local species, poorly known.

Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species[1].

Habitat

Moist lowland forests and montanes.
Occurs from 450 to 1525m, mainly at 500 to 1200m.

Behaviour

A terrestrial species. Known to follow peccaries.

Diet

Poorly known. Includes invertebrates (eg grasshoppers) and vertebrates (eg small frogs).

Breeding

Until very recently now information on nesting. Two recent records are from March to April and from May. Both nests were placed 5m above the ground in understorey trees. The clutch size seems to be very small, probably only one single egg.

Movements

A resident species.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, B.L. Sullivan, C. L. Wood, and D. Roberson. 2013. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.8., with updates to August 2013. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Del Hoyo, J, A Elliot, and J Sargatal, eds. 1997. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 4: Sandgrouse to Cuckoos. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8487334221
  3. Birdlife International

Recommended Citation

External Links

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.

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