Cuckoos, Roadrunners, and Ani (Cuculidae)

 

The Cuculidae includes six subfamilies, 35 genera and 135-150 species. The anis are sometimes placed in a family of their own, Crotophagidae. The cuckoos are nearly cosmopolitan, being absent only from Antarctica, the High Arctic, and northwestern North America. The majority of species are tropical. Cuckoos occur in a wide variety of habitats, including forests, savannas, scrublands, mangroves, or deserts. Some species undertake seasonal migrations. The majority are medium-sized slender birds with slightly curved beaks and long tails; the anis have massive bills. The legs are short in arboreal and long in terrestrial species. The plumage ranges from gray, olive, or black to iridescent green and purple.

Approximately 60 species are brood parasites, laying eggs in the nests of other birds (ca. 300 species of known passerine hosts), thus relying on the host to incubate and rear the cuckoo’s young. Others species built nests and raise their own young, although some may lay eggs in the nests of conspecifics. The anis and Guira Cuckoo (Guira guira) make communal nests. Most of non-parasitic species build nests in trees, bushes, or on the ground. These are either loose platforms of twigs, or globular nests. Clutch size is 1-7 eggs in non-parasitic species; the brood parasites may lay up to 10 eggs during breeding season. Non-parasitic cuckoos lay white or light blue eggs, but the eggs of many parasitic species match colours of their host eggs. Incubation is short, 9-12 days. In the parasitized nests, the cuckoo chick hatches earlier, and evicts the eggs or young of the host. The young of non-parasitic species may fledge after 7-9 days, or sometimes at 29 days in larger species. Most cuckoos feed on invertebrates, including hairy caterpillars; larger species also take lizards and small mammals.

 

Coccyzinae
		Squirrel Cuckoo (Piaya cayana)
Crotophaginae
		Smooth-billed Ani (Crotophaga ani)
		Guira Cuckoo (Guira guira)
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