Pheasant Cuckoo Dromococcyx phasianellus

The Pheasant Cuckoo is a medium-sized cuckoo found in forests throughout much of Central and South America. This species is known to be brood parasite, laying its eggs in the nests of other species; otherwise very little is known of it biology. The Pheasant Cuckoo first was suspected to be brood parasitic by von Ihering (1914a, 1914b), who reported on a strange egg in a nest of the Black-backed Water-Tyrant (Fluvicola albiventer) collected in November 1913 in Bahia, Brazil.  von Ihering’s conjecture was proved correct by a female cuckoo, collected the following year, that contained a fully shelled egg in the oviduct that matched von Ihering's description (Naumburg 1930; see also Friedmann 1964).