Banded Ground-Cuckoo (Ecuador)

Greetings everyone!

I am sorry for my lack of images lately. I have been down in Ecuador leading tours for the past 5 weeks. I will have some goodies to post from the time I spent in that amazing country in the next few weeks. I just had to start wit this one though...

To give some context for this photo you have to understand that this bird is one of the hardest to see in South America. You have to get INCREDIBLY lucky if you are going to see one in a natural setting.

When these birds are seen it is usually at army ant swarms. Like many species of Antbirds these Cuckoos will follow the army ants as they raid out through the forest and hope to capture an easy arthropod meal as insects flee the advancing swarm of furious and relentless ants.

Late last year in Ecuador a woman at a research station noticed that a Banded Ground-Cuckoo was regularly attending a swarm on the property. She began trying to feed it grasshoppers so that it would stick around. To everyone's astonishment it actually worked and this site is now the only place that is reasonably reliable for this fascinating bird. In addition to being a joy for birders and photographers this has also provided an opportunity to learn a lot more about the biology of this species.

In between my two workshops I decided to travel to the station and give it a go. Lets just say I was all smiles that morning :-)

All the best!

Glenn

Camera Model: Canon EOS 7D
Shutter speed: 1/30 sec
Aperture: 4
Exposure compensation: -1/3
ISO: 800
Lens: EF500mm f/4L IS USM

This is a real coup for you, as you say one of the hardest to see let alone to take such a cool image of.
Like it as isbut maybe a little bright on rhs

Great capture and story Glenn!
Cheers, Greg

Very nicely done especially for a such a rare sighting, color and light looks excellent as does the mossy forest setting. Sharp and nice light in the eye, yes to a little more space on the right and maybe all round.

Great story in you post, very interesting, sooooooo good to achieve a very difficult shot

Beautiful portrait, great pose and colors.

Excellent shot Glenn - right up there with your usual standard. Only saw one of these in a documentary about harpy eagles and all I knew was that it wasn't an antbird, but was following a stream of army ants. And it was hopping from branch to branch like the squirrel cuckoos we have here.

Perfectly posed for you, love the perch as well. You make forest photography look so easy!

Congrats Glenn for getting such beautiful image of rarest bird.Great pose,lights, colors and habitat.
Seeing for the first time.TFS.

Regards,
Satish.