Short visit

Last week we had a short visit of a Banded Ground-cuckoo to one of our woodquail feeding sites. As we are monitoring the activity of the animals visiting the feeder we had placed a camera trap at the feeder. Our trap showed us that the Rufous-fronted Woodquails are still frequent visitors of the feeding spot. Other animals like agoutis, opossums and tayras also stopped by for a bite. To our surprise one of the images showed a Banded Ground-cuckoo visiting the site. Later on we checked the site for army ants, but we couldn't find any. So the cuckoo was probably just passing by.

A few weeks ago we also found two cuckoos around an ant swarm in the vicinity of the biological station. Unfortunately both individuals were shy and none of them reacted to our intents to feed them with grasshoppers. As the ants were on the move they left to the neighbor's land soon and we couldn't track them any further.

Whether or not the Banded Ground-cuckoo on the camera trap was shy or tame, we can't say. But without army ants anywhere close by it remains a quest to find them in the forest. Anyways we are happy that there are still signs of Banded Ground-cuckoo activity in the reserve and there is always (a tiny little) chance to stumple upon one on our trails ;-)

In the meantime we enjoy seeing the animals at our feeding site, like this hungry fellow here: