Lesser Ground-Cuckoo
Morococcyx erythropygus
Furtive and rarely seen, but loud song carries well and sounds like a referee’s whistle being blown faster and then slower. Inhabits brushy dry woodland in tropical lowlands, where most of the time it walks stealthily on the ground. When alarmed it usually freezes offering good views—if you are lucky. Note the boldly colored turquoise and yellow skin around the eye and the warm buffy or cinnamon-colored underparts.
Identification
The lesser ground cuckoo is 25 to 28 cm (9.8 to 11 in) long. Males weigh about 58 to 66 g (2.0 to 2.3 oz) and females about 56 to 76 g (2.0 to 2.7 oz). Females are somewhat paler than males but otherwise do not differ. They have a slightly decurved bill with a blackish brown maxilla and an orange mandible. Their face is intricately patterned, with a bright yellow ring around the eye with bare blue skin behind it and thin black lines surrounding the area, a short indistinct whitish stripe above the eye, and cinnamon ocracous cheeks. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a grayish brown crown, an olive brown nape and back, a sooty blackish lower back and rump, and olive brown uppertail coverts. Their tail is mostly olive brown with a purplish bronze gloss and buff to whitish tips on top and light grayish brown on the underside with dull blackish bands near the end of the outer feathers. Their underparts from chin to vent are cinnamon ochraceous. Immatures are similar to adults but duller and do not have the pale tips and blackish bands on the tail.<p>Adults of subspecies M. e. mexicanus are larger and paler than the nominate, with somewhat grayer upperparts and underparts tending to ochraceous buff or pale buff, but a darker underside to the tail.
Taxonomy
The lesser ground cuckoo is the only member of its genus. It has two subspecies, the nominate M. e. erythropygus and M. e. mexicanus.
- Scientific name
- Morococcyx erythropygus
- Authority
- (Lesson, RP, 1842)
- Order
- Cuculiformes
- Family
- Cuculidae
- Genus
- Morococcyx
Range and habitat
The nominate subspecies of lesser ground cuckoo is found from southern Mexico south through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua into Costa Rica. M. e. mexicanus is found on the Pacific slope of western Mexico between Sinaloa and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The species inhabits semiarid to arid landscapes including the interior and edges of woodlands, thorn forest, secondary forest, and savanna. Those in southwestern Mexico are almost exclusively found in thorn forest.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The lesser ground cuckoo is a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The lesser ground cuckoo feeds on insects captured while walking on the ground or picked from vegetation with short leaps. Details of its diet are lacking.<p>The lesser ground cuckoo's breeding seasons vary geographically but are not fully known. In Costa Rica it breeds between February and May and its season in Mexico apparently includes May and June. It makes a shallow bowl nest of sticks or leaves on the ground. Both adults incubate the clutch of two eggs. The incubation period and time to fledging are not known.<p>The lesser ground cuckoo's song has been described as "a series of 10 or more loud rolling or trilling notes...usually introduced by 2-3 clear, ascending whistles" and as "loud, rich, rolled whistles, suggesting a referee's whistle...prree,...prree,....prree, prree-prree-prreeprree ... prree, prree, prree,....prree,.........prree". It also made "a clear whistle, teeeee" and "a rough, growling ghaaaoow".
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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