Tapera naevia
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The striped cuckoo (Tapera naevia) is a near-passerine bird, the only member of the genus Tapera. This resident cuckoo is found from Mexico and Trinidad south to Bolivia and Argentina and Colombia. The striped cuckoo is found in open country with trees or shrubs, and the edges of mangrove forests. It is among the very few brood parasitic cuckoos of the Americas (only other are Dromococcyx), and typical hosts are spinetails, but often also wrens, and other species with domed nests. The female cuckoo lays one, sometimes two, white or bluish eggs in the host's large stick nest. The eggs hatch in 15 days, with a further 18 days until the cuckoo fledges. The young spinetails disappear.
This species is about 27 cm (11 in) long and weighs 40 g (1.4 oz). The adult is mainly grey-brown above, streaked with black and buff. It has a pale supercilium and a chestnut and black crest which is raised as part of its display. The underparts are off-white and the tail is long and graduated. Immature birds are spotted with buff and are more rufous on the back and wings.
The striped cuckoo eats large insects (primarily grasshoppers and caterpillars), often taken off the ground. This is a solitary and fairly shy species which tends to keep to the cover of bushes, although it will sing from more open perches. It has a whistled call usually of two or three notes, wu-weee or wu-wu-wee, and can be attracted by imitations of this. Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Asuncion | 🇵🇾 Paraguay | |
| 2 | Santa Cruz de la Sierra | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 3 | Goiânia | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Cali | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 5 | Valencia | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 6 | Rio de Janeiro | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Campinas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Niterói | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Curitiba | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | Cordoba | 🇦🇷 Argentina |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Striped Cuckoo sighting in Asuncion on a given day, based on 222 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 65th most-seen of the 224 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Striped Cuckoo in Asuncion on a given day, against under 5% in March and April, the lowest months. That is one of Asuncion's wettest months, with about 190 mm of rain against 40 mm in August.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Striped Cuckoo sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 16 cities where we can rate Striped Cuckoo sightings, Asuncion has the highest daily chance: about 10%. Next come Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia, about 10%) and Goiânia (Brazil, under 5%).
Same family: Cuculidae
The closest relatives of the Striped Cuckoo that you can see in Asuncion (family Cuculidae, Cuckoos) are Guira Cuckoo (about 30%) and Smooth-billed Ani (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Striped Cuckoo is recorded against all the birds logged in Asuncion (222 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
