One of the hardest birds to actually see in the Neotropics, even though it’s not small. It lives in the Chocó region on the Pacific slope of southern Colombia and far northern Ecuador, in very wet tropical primary forest—the kind of rainforest that stays dim and dripping even in daytime. Instead of perching out in the open like many cuckoos, it spends most of its time on the forest floor, walking and running through leaf litter like a shy, long-tailed “forest chicken” with a stealth mode.

Up close, it’s striking. It has a dark face with a patch of bare blue skin behind the eye, a glossy blue-black hindneck, and an upper back edged in white that creates a scaly, banded look (that’s where the “banded” name really earns its keep). Its lower back and rump are rich maroon-chestnut, and the tail is dark with a greenish-purple shine. It also carries a short crest that can make it look slightly punk-rock when it’s raised. Like other ground-cuckoos, it’s built for quick sprints and sudden stops rather than long flights; it may fly up into a tree mainly to escape danger or to roost.

The way it feeds is part of its legend. It forages by sprinting, freezing, scanning, and then grabbing prey—mostly insects, but also other crawly things, and sometimes small animals like lizards or frogs, plus occasional fallen fruit. It can also act like a clever opportunist: observers have seen it following army-ant swarms to catch insects flushed into the open, and even trailing peccary herds, likely for the same “stuff gets scared and runs” advantage. Its main call has been described as a deep, rising-and-falling “moo”-like sound repeated at intervals, and it can also make a dry clacking noise by snapping its bill.

Distribution

Country

Population est.

Status

Year

Comments

Colombia

2024

Ecuador

2024