Priorities for Future Research

The Squirrel Cuckoo is very widely distributed and is fairly common across its range, although it is a rather unobtrusive bird. Nonetheless, most aspects of its natural history are poorly known. There is no information on such topics as age at first breeding, life span and survivorship, dispersal, population regulation, territoriality and population density. There also is little information on molts and sexual behavior. Most aspects of its biology have not been assessed with regard to geographic variation. There also is surprisingly little information, for such a common and widespread species, regarding the reproductive biology of the Squirrel Cuckoo.