Guira Cuckoo
Guira guira
A charismatic and eccentric-looking cuckoo. Pale off-white body contrasts with dark wings and tail. Its shaggy orangey crest is usually held cocked. Also note the yellow bill and eyering. Usually seen in groups in open areas such as scrub, agricultural fields, grasslands, and the edge of urban areas. Very noisy and sociable; gives a series of descending notes “pio-pio pio-pio-pirrrrr.”
Identification
The guira cuckoo has a total length of approximately 34 cm (13 in) and weighs 140 g (4.9 oz). The sexes are very similar in appearance, except that the female is slightly larger than the male. Juveniles appear quite similar to adults.<p>The species has dark brown upperparts streaked with white, and whitish-buff throat, breast, underparts and rump. The tail is relatively long and broad, dark brown in color with a white-tip, and the legs are dark gray. The eyes and beak are yellow to orange, with a thin ring of featherless yellow skin around the eye (this commonly fades in captivity). There is a prominent orange-rufous crest.<p>The bird's call is unmistakable for being long and shrill, something between a long whistle and a wailing. Like other members of the subfamily Crotophaginae, the guira cuckoo gives off a strong, pungent odour.
Taxonomy
The guira cuckoo was described and illustrated in 1648 by the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in his Historia Naturalis Brasiliae. He used the name "Guira angatara". The word Güirá means "bird" in the Guarani language. Later ornithologists based their descriptions on Marcgrave's account: Francis Willughby in 1678, John Ray in 1713, Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760, and Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1779. When the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin revised and expanded Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae in 1788 he included the guira cuckoo. He placed it with all the other cuckoos in the genus Cuculus and coined the binomial name Cuculus guira. The guira cuckoo is now the only species placed in the genus Guira that was introduced in 1830 by the French naturalist René Lesson. The species in monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. It is most closely related to the anis in the genus Crotophaga.
- Scientific name
- Guira guira
- Authority
- (Gmelin, JF, 1788)
- Order
- Cuculiformes
- Family
- Cuculidae
- Genus
- Guira
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Behavior
Migration pattern: Complete migrants.
Conservation
Population trend: rising.
- Population trend
- rising
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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A highly distinctive medium-sized raptor. Black overall with a thick white breast band and rusty-edged white stripes on the belly. Slender crest may be held vertically or at an angle when the bird is perched, but tends to be hidden during flight. If seen flying from above, note the “checkerboard” patterning on upperwings. Favors foothill and lowland forests when breeding, but can be found in more open habitats on passage and in wintering grounds. Quite social outside of the breeding season, often soaring in large flocks and roosting communally. Gives a squeaky, echoing whistle, often while in flight.
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