The red-billed ground cuckoo (''Neomorphus pucheranii'') is a species of

cuckoo 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 somet ...

in the tribe Neomorphini of subfamily

Crotophaginae The Crotophaginae are a small subfamily, within the cuckoo family Cuculidae, of four gregarious bird species occurring in the Americas. They were previously classified as a family Crotophagidae. The subfamily is notable for the development of co ...

. It is found in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

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 ...

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 possibly Ecuador.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, 2022Remsen, 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

Taxonomy and systematics

The red-billed ground-cuckoo has two subspecies, the

nominate Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to a public office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list. Political office In th ...

''N. p. pucheranii'' and ''N. p. lepidophanes''.

Description

The red-billed ground cuckoo is long, about half of which is its tail. One male weighed . Adults have a heavy decurved red or orange bill tipped with green or yellow. Males and females of each subspecies have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a dark bluish black crown and shaggy crest with a purple gloss. Their nape and back are olive brown and the rump brown with a bronzy green gloss. Their tail is dark chestnut with an olive green gloss on the upperside of the central feathers. Their wings are mostly rufous; the outer

primaries Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pri ...

are black with a violet blue gloss. Their face is ashy gray with red lores, red skin around the eye, and bright blue skin behind the eye. Their throat is plain ashy gray, the breast ashy gray with faint black edges to the feathers and a black band below it. Their belly is buffy to light gray and the flanks and undertail

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are small feathers behind t ...

dark brownish gray. Juveniles have brown upperparts without gloss, a blackish crest, purplish chestnut wings, black throat and chest, and a brown belly.Hughes, J. M. (2020). Red-billed Ground-Cuckoo (''Neomorphus pucheranii''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.rbgcuc1.01 retrieved September 24, 2022 Adults of subspecies ''N. p. lepidophanes'' are similar, but with a clay-colored breast and belly rather than buffy to light gray. Their breast feathers appear more scaled as well.

Distribution and habitat

The red-billed ground cuckoo is a bird of the upper Amazon basin. The nominate subspecies is found in eastern Peru and western Brazil north of the Amazon River. A sight record in Ecuador leads the South 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 ...

to treat it as hypothetical in that country. That committee has not evaluated another sight record from

. Subspecies ''N. p. lepidophanes'' is also found in eastern Peru and western Brazil but south of the Amazon. The species inhabits moist lowland evergreen forest, usually that on somewhat hilly terrain with well-drained soil at elevations up to .

Behavior

Movement

The red-billed ground cuckoo is a year-round resident throughout its range.

Locomotion

The red-billed ground cuckoo is almost exclusively terrestrial, though it may fly low to the ground or into a tree to escape a predator or hop to low branches. It mostly walks or runs on the forest floor and makes leaps to catch prey.

Feeding

The red-billed ground cuckoo's diet has not been extensively studied but is mostly insects. It also includes other

arthropod Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...

s; small vertebrates like lizards, amphibians, and small birds; and sometimes fruits. It follows

army ant The name army ant (or legionary ant or ''marabunta'') is applied to over 200 ant species in different lineages. Because of their aggressive predatory foraging groups, known as "raids", a huge number of ants forage simultaneously over a limited ...

swarms and peccaries to catch prey fleeing from them, and monkey troops to feed on fallen fruits.

Breeding

Almost nothing is known about the red-billed ground cuckoo's breeding

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples include the date of emergence of leav ...

and its nest has not been described. In 1855 an observer noted a nest with two eggs being incubated by both adults.

Vocal and non-vocal sounds

The red-billed ground cuckoo's song is "a short (1 sec), deep, rising hoot in a series of about 1 note/2 sec". Red-billed ground cuckoos have been observed to mimic peccaries acoustically, perhaps for two reasons. Peccaries are able to defend their herd from predators, so mimicking peccaries would trick predators into believing that peccaries are near. Doing so may also benefit both species by warning the other of nearby predators.

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 red-billed ground cuckoo as being of Least Concern. It has a very large range, and though its population size is not known it is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified. "However, the reliance of Red-billed Ground-Cuckoo on tropical evergreen forest suggests that it could be susceptible to loss of habitat through deforestation and forest fragmentation."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1273631 red-billed ground cuckoo Birds of the Amazon rainforest Birds of the Colombian Amazon Birds of Peruvian Amazonia red-billed ground cuckoo red-billed ground cuckoo Taxonomy articles created by Polbot