Sumatran Ground Cuckoo... hardest Sumatran bird to see? (1 Viewer)

[Nick Brickle]

Call me thick, but it took a lesson, from James E to finally figure out how to post a message...

Along with the above mentioned, tried for the Kerinici Sumatran Ground Cuckoo last weekend. The cuts, scratches, leech bites and aches are slowly healing, so now just the mental scars remain.

Suffice to say we didnt see (or hear) the bird, despite the fact that it is obvioulsy there. If anyone is interested to try for it I almost wouldn't know where to start to explain how to get there. You could probably do worse than just start from the GPS coordinates and trudge, hack and wade in the aproximate direction for 3 days from Muara Bungo in Jambi. This is basically what we did!

Big thanks to the DICE/FFI Tiger survey team that took us to the spot (and for getting the photo in the first place).

Think I'll stick to trying to find one in BBS!

Nick

ps. Is this the hardest bird to see in Sumatra?

 

[cuckooroller]

Hi Nick,
James sent me a note about the hard luck. Might do with ultralight Heli's but no place to land I imagine. Surely your question is rhetorical, though I imagine there are others just about as cryptic.

 

[lewis20126]

ps. Is this the hardest bird to see in Sumatra?

How about Hoogerwerf's Pheasant, or Rueck's Blue Fly? Not seen too many of those either!

 

[James Eaton]

How about Hoogerwerf's Pheasant, or Rueck's Blue Fly? Not seen too many of those either!

Funny you should mention the Hoogerwerf's.....a paper is soon to be published on this taxon, after reading it I would regard it as nothing more than a subspecies of Salvadori's and a weak one at that.

Rueck's Blue Fly, another bird that just needs a bit of time, I'm sure it's waiting to be discovered, just need someone to have a good exploration of Leuser (Nick?!!).

After that hellish trip next week think I'll let another field observer to nail the Cuckoo, personally, I'm going to stick to Bukit Tapan, specimen from there and I don't see any reason for it not to occur there still. It's great that still so many mysterious endemics are to be found on this island, not many people have seen Sumatran or Roll's Hill-Partridges and Vanderbilt's or Sumatran Babbler (though certain birders may have gripped my by the latter species!).

 

[Chris D]

Great Post. Hopefully next year we'll give that one a bit of a try. I'm sure of failure. Did see the one in the Danum Valley (Spectacular). Back there next June. Thanks again Nick for the words about Anu. We'll be back in N Sulawesi in early July. I've got some great shots of Anu for him. Will have a buddy bring over to Halmahera.

I wish leech bites didn't itch for so long.........

 

[Nick Brickle]

speaking of Rueck's Blue Flycatcher...

for anyone interested, this is where the species was recorded:

one adult male, 10 Feb 1918 at Tuntungan (03°22'N, 98°34'E) at 50 m asl;
one immature male, 4 Apr 1917 at Delitua (03°30'N, 98°40'E) at 60 m asl.

As far as I know, that is it.

You can plug the coordinates into Google Earth and (as far as I can remember) one site is now deforested, but the other looks OK. Neither site can be more than 2-3 hours drive from Medan.


I cannot recall ever speaking to, of hearing of, anyone who had ever gone to look at these sites?

Waiting to be found?!

Nick

 

[Xenospiza]

Go and catch pheasants, and you might just find the ground-cuckoo:
http://orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?keyword=Carpococcyx+viridis

 

[paddleasia]

Go and catch pheasants, and you might just find the ground-cuckoo:
http://orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?keyword=Carpococcyx+viridis

What an awesome bird! I was supposed to go to Kerenci in a couple weeks. I had to pull out unfortunately. I do plan on going in the near future however, so thanks to this thread it looks like it would be in my interest to do a LOT of research first. It would be incredible to see this cuckoo... innit.