Birds | The Canopy Family

Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo

Rufous-vented Ground-CuckooNeomorphus geoffroyi Photo by Danilo Rodríguez Jr. The Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo is a beautiful but infrequently encountered bird. Like the other four species of ground-cuckoo in its genus, it is renowned for its scarcity and its highly elusive habits. In appearance, the Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo might be described as an oversized colorful roadrunner—not incidentally, the Geococcyx roadrunners are considered a sister genus to the Neomorphus ground-cuckoos—with a prominent crest, a thick yellowish bill, bare blue skin around its eye, a long tail, and a plumage of green, purple, and bronze hues. Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoos are almost always observed in the vicinity of large swarms of army ants, foraging on or near the ground by picking off the insects, arachnids, and small vertebrates such as lizards and frogs that the ants disturb as they swarm across the forest floor. Finding these antswarms can be very productive from a birder’s perspective, as many different birds can be observed foraging in this manner including other difficult species such as the Ocellated Antbird (Phaenostictus mcleannani), but the Neomorphus ground-cuckoos are undoubtedly the rarest and most sought-after of all the antswarm followers. The presence of a ground-cuckoo may be indicated by its deep moaning or cooing vocalization or by the loud clacking of its bill that it uses as an alarm or to communicate with other ground-cuckoos. Even once a ground-cuckoo is located at an antswarm, its shy nature and the often dense undergrowth of its habitat can make it difficult to see. Less frequently, Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoos may also forage in association with groups of peccaries or monkeys. The Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo occurs locally in areas of undisturbed primary forest. The northernmost population (subspecies salvini) occurs in parts of Nicaragua and Honduras, along the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica, through Panama, and into northern Colombia. Five additional subspecies,

Rufous-vented Ground-CuckooNeomorphus geoffroyi Photo by Danilo Rodríguez Jr. The Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo is a beautiful but infrequently encountered bird. Like the other four species of ground-cuckoo in its genus, it is renowned for its

Rufous-crested Coquette

Rufous-crested CoquetteLophornis delattrei Photo by Carlos Bethancourt Even within the charismatic hummingbird family (Trochilidae), the tiny, rare, ornately plumaged Rufous-crested Coquette is a standout birders’ favorite. The male Rufous-crested Coquette is most easily