Ground-Cuckoos Gallery

Have you felt jealous ever? I mean, in a good way. Well, right now I'm feeling that way thanks to a very good friend of mine. I received an e-mail from Rafael Cortes, an enthusiastic and full-of-energy mexican birder now resident in Colombia, telling me on his last birding trip to Anchicaya, in the colombian Choco bioregion, along with his son Luis Francisco and two other birders. Back in Panama few years ago, we were birding buddies practising what we liked to call target birding: to list the most rare or beautiful birds and then to organize trips to find each one of the targets. By this method we found great life birds (Agami Heron, Three-wattled Bellbird, Bare-necked Umbrellabird, Yellow-billed Cotinga, Great Jacamar, Harpy Eagle and many more), but somehow we failed to locate our target bird # 1 (Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo) despite all our efforts. Some years after he left Panama, I got a glimpse of a Ground-Cuckoo during a Christmas Bird Count in Pipeline road, and more recently, I delighted myself with a cooperative individual, again in Pipeline road (and this was after Rafael's quick visit to Panama last year... we dipped on the bird in Pipeline road during the only chance he got for birding). At this point, maybe you already guessed that Rafael finally achieved his life Ground-Cuckoo, and you are right... then, you may ask why I'm so jealous (in the good way) if I already have seen Ground-Cuckoos twice? Well, because he and his son not only saw, but also photographed and even videotaped a BANDED GROUND-CUCKOO attending an antswarm... one of the rarest birds in the world!!! Compared with it, the Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo would look like a rock star, considering all the lucky birders that have seen and photographed it in central Panama (probably the best place of the world to find it). A quick search in Google only produced a trip report and few pics of the bird from northern Ecuador (some are of a netted bird), demonstrating partly its genuine rarity, since it does not cross often with birders or photographers. OK, enough of so many chat and lets go directly to the photos, nicely shared by Rafael and Luis Francisco.

The full account of the trip is so vivid (thanks to Rafael's narrative skills) that I almost felt the excitement of the moment as if I had been with them! The place was so magical that the Ground-Cuckoo was not the only highlight (hard to believe ah?), with Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, Sapphire (perhaps Indigo-capped) Quail-Dove and Long-wattled Umbrellabird also recorded!

CONGRATULATIONS to both of you and thanks for sharing that experience. Rafael, we also miss you here in Panama, I hope to see you soon.