Squirrel Cuckoo (Piaya cayana)

Feb 05, 2017 Features / Columnists, Interesting Creatures in Guyana

The Squirrel Cuckoo (Piaya cayana) is a large and active species of cuckoo found in wooded habitats from north western Mexico to northern Argentina and Uruguay, and on Trinidad.

Squirrel Cuckoo

This extremely long-tailed cuckoo is 40.5–50 centimetres (15.9–19.7 in) long and weighs 95–120 grams (3.4–4.2 oz).
The adult has mainly chestnut upperparts and head, becoming paler on the throat. The lower breast is grey and the belly is blackish. The central tail feathers are rufous, but the outer are black with white tips. The bill is yellow and the iris is red. Immature birds have a grey bill and eye-ring, brown iris, and less white in the tail. It resembles the Little Cuckoo, but that species is smaller and has a darker throat.
The Squirrel Cuckoo is a pan-Neotropical inhabitant of a large diversity of forested, wooded, and disturbed habitats across the entire humidity gradient from tropical deciduous forest, coffee plantations, and gallery forests to primary humid lowland rainforest.
Though distinctive throughout its range it is highly polytypic with 14 subspecies that vary in the coloration of their underparts, throat, bare parts, and tail. Some of these subspecies are quite distinct, and due to their lack of integration with adjoining subspecies perhaps represent separate species.
There are a number of subspecies with minor plumage variations. For example, P. c. mehleri, one of the South American subspecies, has mainly brown (not black) outer tail feathers. Additionally, the subspecies from Mexico, Central America, and northern and western South America have a yellow eye-ring, but this is red in the remaining part of South America.
It makes an explosive kip! and kip! weeuu calls, and the song is a whistled wheep wheep wheep wheep.
The Squirrel Cuckoo is found in woodland canopy and edges, second growth, hedges and semi-open habitats from sea level to as high as 2,500 metres (8,200 ft), although it is uncommon above 1,200 metres (3,900 ft).
This species’ English name derives from its habit of running along branches and leaping from branch to branch like a squirrel. It normally flies only short distances, mainly gliding with an occasional flap. They are said to be common and if not seen in gliding from one tree to another, they are energetically hopping from branch to branch in search of a wide variety of arthropods.
It feeds on large insects such as cicadas, wasps and caterpillars (including those with stinging hairs or spines), and occasionally spiders and small lizards, rarely taking fruit.
Its static prey is typically taken off the foliage with a quick lunge, but wasps may be picked out of the air. Squirrel Cuckoos are often observed to forage peacefully alongside small mammals such as Common Marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) during the dry season for cocoa beans. In particular, they can be seen to attend army ant columns together, picking off prey flushed by the ants, and occasionally will join mixed-species feeding flocks.
The nest is a cup of leaves on a twig foundation, hidden in dense vegetation 1–12 metres (3.3–39.4 ft) high in a tree. The female lays two white eggs.
The Squirrel Cuckoo is plentiful in most of its range and appears to be quite tolerant of human disturbance, as long as wooded land remains. Compared to many cuckoos in the world, it is relatively bold and conspicuous, although it most often encountered skulking about within vegetation. Due to its wide range, it is considered a species of Least Concern by the IUCN.
(Source: Wikipedia – The Free Online Encyclopedia)

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