Today we have a curious bird from Central and South America, the Squirrel Cuckoo (Piaya cayana).
Straight out of the gate, there are a lot of questions we need to clear up. What is this animal? Is it a squirrel that acts like a cuckoo – offloading its children onto unsuspecting mice to raise them on its behalf? Is it a cuckoo that decided squirrels would make better foster parents than birds for its eggs? Maybe it’s a squirrel that really looks like a cuckoo? Or a cuckoo that looks like a squirrel? Who has the answers to these questions? I do, and I’ll tell you right now.
First, it’s the last option: this is a cuckoo that looks like a squirrel. They’re a large russet coloured cuckoo with a long broad tail. Honestly, I think they’re kinda cute. They earnt their name because of their unusual arboreal locomotion. You see, they don’t really like to fly. Instead, they scamper and jump about from branch to branch without opening their wings. They’re quite fleet-footed and as they dart about they bear a striking resemblance to a red squirrel.
Of course, they can fly, but when they do it’s only ever over short distance, and they favour gliding to flapping.
The second thing we need to clear up is the bad reputation their relatives have lumped them with. These cuckoos raise their own chicks, they don’t lay their eggs in other birds’ nests. There are about 160 birds in the cuckoo family, Cuculiformes, and the majority of them – about 100 species – all raise their own young. Only 60ish species are what we call ‘obligate brood parasites’ meaning they can only reproduce by laying eggs in someone else’s nest. But the Squirrel Cuckoo isn’t one of them.
On the contrary, both male and female are dutiful parents. They work together to make a nest, incubate the eggs and feed the young. So don’t let the name fool you. This isn’t a squirrel that lays its eggs in another squirrel’s nest, it’s a bird that makes its own nest and does a pretty fine job of raising its own children, thank you very much.
06/06/2021
Bird of the Week 
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