Common Squirrel-Cuckoo Life History

Habitat

Common Squirrel-Cuckoos are birds of forests, woodlands, and forest edges, and occasionally move into nearby clearings with isolated trees. It is a widespread species that uses dry, semihumid, and humid forests and occurs from lowlands up to elevations of 2,000+ meters (6,600 feet) in many parts of its range.

Food

Common Squirrel-Cuckoos eat mainly insects, which they capture while foraging in the midstory and canopy. Major insect prey, from limited diet studies, include caterpillars, grasshoppers, crickets, cicadas, bugs, wasps, bees, ants, and other insects. These large cuckoos also eat small lizards. At one site in northeastern Brazil, frogs made up 20% of the food adults delivered to four nests.

Nesting

Nest Placement

Nest is built in a bush or tree in the forest understory and concealed with branches or lianas.

Nest Description

The nest is an open cup, built of dried twigs and lined with green leaves that adults regularly replenish.

Nesting Facts

Behavior

For large, brightly colored birds, Common Squirrel-Cuckoos can be surprisingly inconspicuous in midstory and canopy vegetation. Individuals usually forage alone or in loose pairs, but sometimes join mixed-species flocks. Common Squirrel-Cuckoos at times sit motionless or move slowly within dense foliage, but they also hop quickly along large branches, like squirrels. Their sporadic, loud, and distinctive calls are often the best way to know they are nearby, but occasionally individuals take flight on a flurry of weak wingbeats and glide across a clearing.

Both sexes incubate eggs, brood young chicks, and feed nestlings. The nest is large enough to fit the body of an adult, but not the long tail, so adults incubate with their tail raised. Chicks venture out of the nest before they can fly, hopping along nearby branches and then returning to the nest before eventually fledging about two weeks after hatching.

Conservation

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists Common Squirrel-Cuckoos conservation status as Least Concern. Common Squirrel-Cuckoo has an extremely large range, an unknown but presumed large population size, and a population trend that appears to be decreasing.

Credits

AviList Core Team (2025). AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, 2025.

Fitzgerald, J., T. S. Schulenberg, and G. F. Seeholzer (2020). Squirrel Cuckoo (Piaya cayana), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.squcuc1.01

Howell, S. N. G., and S. Webb (1995). A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. Oxford University Press, New York, NY, USA.

Márcio Repenning, Helena C. de P. Basso, Jonas R. Rossoni, Marilise M. Krügel , Carla S. Fontana. Análise comparativa da dieta de quatro espécies de cucos (Aves: Cuculidae), no sul do Brasil. Zoologia (Curitiba). 2009. Vol. 26(3):443-453.

Pearman, M., and J. I. Areta (2021). Birds of Argentina and the South-west Atlantic. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA.

Ridgely, R. S., J. A. Gwynne, G. Tudor, and M. Argel (2016). Birds of Brazil: The Atlantic Forest of Southeast Brazil including São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, USA.

Schulenberg, T. S., D. F. Stotz, D. F. Lane, J. P. O’Neill, and T. A. Parker (2007). Birds of Peru. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA.

Studer, S., and Barcena-Goyena, B. (2018). Nesting biology of Squirrel Cuckoo Piaya cayana at two localities in eastern Brazil. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 138(3):238-243.

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