The Story
I photographed this Common Squirrel-Cuckoo (Piaya cayana) at La Esmeralda Hostal, in the vereda Pastales near Ibagué, Tolima, Colombia, in October 2019. This large, very long-tailed cuckoo lives in wooded country from northwestern Mexico to northern Argentina and Uruguay. It is mostly chestnut above, with a gray lower breast, a blackish belly and black outer tail feathers tipped white. It eats large insects such as cicadas, wasps and caterpillars, even ones with stinging hairs. It often follows army ant columns to pick off the prey they flush. IUCN lists it as Least Concern, though its numbers are believed to be falling.
I made this frame with a Pentax K-1 and the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6, at 1/640 sec, f/7.1, ISO 800. It is plentiful in most of its range and seems quite tolerant of people, as long as woodland remains.
©2020 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Common Squirrel-Cuckoo (Piaya cayana) belongs to the family Cuculidae (Cuckoos) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2020), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List