The grey-capped cuckoo (''Coccyzus lansbergi'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the tribe Phaenicophaeini, subfamily Cuculinae of the cuckoo family

Cuculidae Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae ( ) family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes ( ). The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals, and anis. The coucals and anis are someti ...

.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 6. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v6_Dec21.zip retrieved August 7, 2022 It is found in

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, and

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

, as a

vagrant Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western countries, ...

Bonaire Bonaire is a Caribbean island in the Leeward Antilles, and is a Caribbean Netherlands, special municipality (officially Public body (Netherlands), "public body") of the Netherlands. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk, on the west (Windward an ...

and in the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands () are an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Eastern Pacific, located around the equator, west of the mainland of South America. They form the Galápagos Province of the Republic of Ecuador, with a population of sli ...

,Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 24 July 2022. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved July 24, 2022 and possibly in

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

.Erritzøe, J., Mann, C.F., Brammer, F.P. and Fuller, R.A. (2012). Cuckoos of the World. Christopher Helm, London.

Taxonomy and systematics

The grey-capped cuckoo is more closely related to the Caribbean species of genus ''Coccyzus'' than it is to the others found in South America.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 24 July 2022. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved July 24, 2022 The species is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

Description

The grey-capped cuckoo is long, about half of which is the tail. Males weigh . The species' bill is stout, somewhat decurved, and black with sometimes a gray or yellow spot at the base of the

mandible In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone i ...

. Males and females have the same plumage. Adults have a slate-gray cap to below the eye. Their upperparts and wings are rufous brown. The upper surface of their tail is black; the underside of the central pair of feathers is black and the rest black with white tips. Their eye is surrounded by a narrow ring of bare skin that is yellow, white, or yellowish gray. Their underparts are dark rufous buff. Juveniles are similar to adults but have a brown crown and less white on the tail.Payne, R. B. and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Gray-capped Cuckoo (''Coccyzus lansbergi''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.gyccuc.01 retrieved September 25, 2022

Distribution and habitat

The grey-capped cuckoo has two separate populations. One is in northern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela and the other in western Ecuador and extreme northern Peru. The species has been documented as a vagrant on Bonaire (an island off the Venezuelan coast) and on the Galapagos Islands. Two reports from Panama have apparently not been accepted by the North American Classification Committee of the

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...

. The grey-capped cuckoo inhabits a variety of landscapes including tropical moist to dry

semi-deciduous Semi-deciduous or semi-evergreen is a botanical term which refers to plants that lose their foliage for a very short period, when old leaves fall off and new foliage growth is starting. This phenomenon occurs in tropical and sub-tropical wood ...

forest, arid forest,

gallery forest A gallery forest is one formed as a corridor along rivers or wetlands, projecting into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands, or deserts. The gallery forest maintains a more temperate microclimate above th ...

, and shrubby savanna. In elevation it mostly ranges from sea level to in Peru, to in Ecuador, to in Colombia, and to in Venezuela. There are a few records from higher elevations.

Behavior

Movement

The grey-capped cuckoo is partially or wholly migratory, but the timing and locations involved are poorly known. Migration might be within each separate area rather than between them.

Feeding

The grey-capped cuckoo feeds on insects; caterpillars and some wasps appear to form the bulk of its diet.

Breeding

The grey-capped cuckoo's breeding season in Ecuador may be as long as from January to June, but details there and in the rest of its range are lacking. Its nest is a platform of twigs lined with lichens placed on a horizontal branch between about above the ground and concealed by foliage. The clutch size is two to five eggs. Both parents incubate the eggs over nine to 12 days and fledging occurs eight to 13 days after hatch. Incubation begins with the first egg laid so hatching is asynchronous and the young differ in size.

Vocalization

The grey-capped cuckoo's song is a " st series of 6–8 hollow and falling 'cu' notes, often with a slight pause before the last note, e.g., 'cucucucucucucu-cu'." It may be repeated several times during each song bout.

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has assessed the grey-capped cuckoo as being of Least Concern, though its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. No specific threats have been identified. Its distribution is not well known; it is thought to be fairly common but still local in western Ecuador and rare elsewhere. "Further research srequired, primarily to define helimits of range."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1262746 grey-capped cuckoo Birds of Colombia Birds of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Birds of Venezuela Birds of Ecuador Birds of the Caribbean grey-capped cuckoo grey-capped cuckoo Taxonomy articles created by Polbot