Behavior

Active during daylight hours (Willis 1982, Siegel et al. 1989).

Red-billed Ground-Cuckoo typically is terrestrial, and is observed walking or running on the ground. The flight is described as graceful ("son vol est très-léger"; Deville 1851).

Red-billed Ground-Cuckoo maintains a commensal relationship with Brown-mantled (Saguinus fuscicollis) and Moustached (S. mystax) tamarins in northeastern Amazonian Peru. The birds benefit in the acquisition of additional food, but there is no evidence that the tamarins benefit at all, not even in some improvement in antipredator security (Siegel et al. 1989).

The accounts of this behavior are from Siegel et al. (1989). Between bouts of foraging, the tamarin troop rested in the canopy, typically 13-15 m off the ground. During these rest periods, the cuckoo also rested quietly and sunned itself on the ground, partially hidden in the vegetation. On one occasion, the cuckoo and tamarins were resting in a leafless fallen tree in a sunny clearing (about 25 m² in size) and in close proximity to one another: the cuckoo was perched on a horizontal tree trunk about 1.5 m above the ground and within 3 m of the tamarins. When the tamarins preened each other, the cuckoo preened itself by running its bill from the base to the tips of its rectrices. No agonistic behaviors were observed between the tamarins and the cuckoo. See Foraging Behavior for descriptions of specific foraging-related behaviors associated with tamarins.

No information.

Little information; probably has a monogamous mating system.

Little information; typically seen individually or in pairs.

No information.