The Story
I photographed this Common Squirrel-Cuckoo (Piaya cayana) along the Trampolín de la Muerte, the mountain road above Mocoa, Putumayo, Colombia. It lives in woodland canopy and edges, second growth and hedges from sea level up to about 2,500 meters. Its nest is a shallow platform of leaves on a base of twigs, hidden in dense vegetation 1 to 12 meters up in a tree. It feeds on large insects and occasionally spiders. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I made this frame with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/1000 sec, f/16, ISO 6400. The road averages about 18 curves per kilometer as it drops from the Andes toward the Amazonian foothills around Mocoa.
©2022 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