Rufous-vented Ground Cuckoo

Rufous-vented Ground Cuckoo
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Cuculiformes
Family:	Cuculidae
Subfamily:	Neomorphinae
Genus:	Neomorphus
Species:	N. geoffroyi
Binomial name
Neomorphus geoffroyi (Temminck, 1820)

The Rufous-vented Ground Cuckoo (Neomorphus geoffroyi) is a large terrestrial species of cuckoo in the Cuculidae family. It is found in humid primary forests from southern Nicaragua, through Costa Rica and Panama, into north-western Colombia. Another population occurs in the western and southern Amazon Basin of south-eastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru, northern Bolivia and Brazil, while a final population occurs in the Atlantic Forest of eastern Brazil. Much confusion exists over the exact limits of its distribution in the south-central Amazon, where the very similar Scaled Ground Cuckoo occurs (the breast-markings typically used to separate the Scaled and the Rufous-vented Ground Cuckoos are known to vary clinally). Consequently, the Scaled Ground Cuckoo has often been considered a subspecies of the Rufous-vented Ground Cuckoo.

As other species in the genus Neomorphus, the Rufous-vented Ground Cuckoo is generally highly inconspicuous and infrequently seen. While overall unlikely to be threatened due ot its large range, one subspecies, maximiliani (from Bahia, Brazil), may be extinct, and another, dulcis (from Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo, Brazil), is very rare and likely to be threatened. The subspecies vary primarily in the details of the chest- and crown-pattern, and the colour of the tail and wings.

References

• Payne, R. B. 1997. Rufous-vented Ground Cuckoo (Neomorphus geoffroyi). pp. 606–607 in: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., and Sargatal, J. eds. 1997. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 4. Sandgrouse to Cuckoos. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. ISBN 84-87334-22-9
• BirdLife International 2004. Neomorphus geoffroyi. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 24 July 2007.