ANIMALS

Meet The Squirrel Cuckoo With An Elegant Long Tail and A Striking Yet Subtle Blush Of Soft Pink Feather

In Central America, there is a remarkable bird that stands out with its beautiful red and brown feathers and gracefully long tail.

The squirrel cuckoo (Piaya cayana) is a big and lively bird with an impressively long tail measuring 40.5 to 50 centimeters (15.9 to 19.7 inches) in length. It weighs around 95 to 120 grams (3.4 to 4.2 ounces). The adults have a chestnut-colored body and head, which gradually becomes a soft pink shade on the throat. The lower breast is gray, the belly appears almost black, and the central tail feathers are rufous, with the outer ones having white tips. The bird has a yellow bill and striking red eyes.

Image source: Bernard DUPONT/CC BY-SA 2.0

Young squirrel cuckoos, known as juvenile birds, have a gray bill and eyering. Their eyes are brown, and their tails have less white coloration compared to the adults.

The squirrel cuckoo closely resembles the Black-bellied Cuckoo, but there are distinguishing features. The squirrel cuckoo can be recognized by its yellow bill and a cap on its head that matches the color of its back.

Image source: Bernard DUPONT/CC BY-SA 2.0

These birds can be found in the northwestern regions of Mexico, as well as in northern areas of Argentina, Uruguay, and Trinidad.

Image source: Bernard DUPONT/CC BY-SA 2.0

Squirrel Cuckoos like to make their homes in forests and wooded areas, especially in the high parts of the trees and where the forest meets open spaces. They can also be found in coffee plantations, bushes, pastures with trees, areas near rivers in dry regions, and even in residential areas. However, they tend to avoid dry wooded areas.

Image source: Bernard DUPONT/CC BY-SA 2.0

Squirrel Cuckoos mostly eat insects like bugs, cicadas, wasps, and caterpillars. Sometimes they also have spiders and small lizards as part of their diet. Although it’s rare, they occasionally enjoy eating fruits.

Image source: Bernard DUPONT/CC BY-SA 2.0

During the time when they’re ready to reproduce, Squirrel Cuckoos create a nest that looks like a shallow cup. They build it using sticks and leaves in dense foliage or trees. The female bird lays up to 3 eggs inside the nest and both the male and female take turns incubating them for about 18 to 20 days. Once the chicks hatch, both parents work together to feed and take care of them.

Image source: Bernard DUPONT/CC BY-SA 2.0

The squirrel cuckoo is abundant in most of the places it lives and seems to be okay with human activity, as long as there are still forests around.

Image source: Bernard DUPONT/CC BY-SA 2.0

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ANIMALS

Amazing Video of Unseen Ocean Creatures in the Ningaloo Canyons

The Schmidt Ocean Institute recently explored the Ningaloo Canyons on the western coast of Australia using a robotic underwater vehicle called the ROV Sebastian. Check out the amazing video of what they discovered in the deep parts of the Indian Ocean.

More info: Youtube

ANIMALS

These Pics Are Art and the Artists Are Insects

Flying insects move so quickly that they are hard to follow, but new technology and some smart ideas have helped Spanish photographer Xavi Bou do just that. After spending 10 years focusing on birds in flight for his Ornithographies project, he turned his attention to insects.

For Entomographies, he uses high-speed video footage taken by Adrian Smith, an insect expert at North Carolina State University, to study and record how insects move. Bou then picks multiple frames and combines them into single images that show the fast movements of one or more insects through space and time.

With Smith’s help, Bou has captured the aerial tricks of wasps, the jumps of leafhoppers, and the fluttering of butterflies in amazing detail. He hopes that by doing this, he can make people more aware of the decline in important insect populations around the world.

1. Zebra longwing

This butterfly, which is common in many areas of the Americas, really fits its name. It can fly very high with just a few flaps of its large wings.