Tapera naevia
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
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 |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Striped Cuckoo sighting in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas on a given day, based on 518 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 88th most-seen of the 308 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Striped Cuckoo in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas on a given day, against about 20% in September to November, the lowest months. That is one of Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas's wettest months, with about 180 mm of rain against almost none in July. January to April have too few records to rate.
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.
Among the best
Of the 43 parks where we can rate Striped Cuckoo sightings, Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas ranks 2nd at about 30%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Iberá National Park (Argentina, about 30%).
Same family: Cuculidae
The closest relatives of the Striped Cuckoo that you can see in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas (family Cuculidae, Cuckoos) are Smooth-billed Ani (about 70%), Squirrel Cuckoo (about 30%) and Greater 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 Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas (518 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
