Breeding

The Striped Cuckoo is brood parasitic. As is true for all brood parasitic species, parental care of eggs and young is provided by the host species. Striped Cuckoos typically parasitize small-bodied passerines that construct covered or domed nests; sub-oscines are parasitized much more often than oscines, and ovenbirds (Furnariidae) in particular are frequent host species.

Details of breeding biology of the Striped Cuckoo are little known. The eggs are white, bluish white, or greenish blue; 21 x 16 mm, 2.5 g. Incubation about 15 - 16 days. Young cuckoo kills nestmates soon after hatching with hooked bill and is reared alone in nest of host. The young cuckoo leaves the nest when 16 - 18 days old. The fledgling remains flightless for another week and may still be cared for by host to age 36 days old (Payne 2005; see also Friedmann 1933, Sick 1953, Haverschmidt 1955, 1961, Wetmore 1968, Morton and Farabaugh 1979, Salvador 1982).

List of known host species include Friedmann 1933; see also Davis 1940, Loetscher 1952, Sick 1953, 1993, Haverschmidt 1955, 1961, 1968, Wetmore 1968, Salvador 1982, Kiff and Williams 1978, Stiles and Skutch 1989, ffrench 1991, Payne 2005, Erritzoe at al. 2012 and Salvador 2013. Brief mention of this cuckoo in studies of actual or potential hosts also is given in Skutch 1969, Thomas 1983, and Freed 1987:

FURNARIIDAE

Chotoy Spinetail Schoeniophylax phryganophilus (Brazil: Sick 1993; Argentina: Davis 1940)

Sooty-fronted Spinetail Synallaxis frontalis (Brazil: Sick 1993)

Azara's Spinetail Synallaxis azarae (Argentina: Friedmann 1927)

Pale-breasted Spinetail Synallaxis albescens (Costa Rica: Kiff and Williams 1978; Suriname: Haverschmidt 1968; Brazil: Sick 1993)

Spix’s Spinetail Synallaxis spixi (Brazil: Sick 1993; Argentina: Friedmann 1927)

Plain-crowned Spinetail Synallaxis gujanensis (Suriname: Haverschmidt 1968; Brazil: Sick 1993)

Rufous-breasted Spinetail Synallaxis erythrothorax (Guatemala?: Wetmore 1968)

Stripe-breasted Spinetail Synallaxis cinnamomea (Argentina: Friedmann 1927)

Yellow-chinned Spinetail Certhiaxis cinnamomeus (Suriname: Haverschmidt 1968; Brazil: Sick 1993)

Short-billed Castanero Asthenes baeri

Little Thornbird Phacellodomus sibilatrix (Salvador 2013)

Rufous-fronted Thornbird Phacellodomus rufifrons (Brazil: Sick 1993)

Greater Thornbird Phacellodomus ruber (Brazil: Sick 1993)

"Red-eyed Thornbird Phacellodomus erythrophthalmus" (Brazil: Sick 1993). The Red-eyed Thornbird contained two subspecies, nominate erythrophthalmus and ferrugineigula; currently these are treated as separate species, Orange-eyed Thornbird Phacellodomus erythrophthalmus and Orange-breasted Thornbird Phacellodomus ferrugineigula. Sick (1993: 284) did not specify which population was host to Striped Cuckoo in Brazil, or indeed whether this observation might apply to both thornbirds.

Buff-fronted Foliage-Gleaner Philydor rufum (Paraguay: Friedmann 1927)

TYRANNIDAE

White-headed Marsh Tyrant, Arundinicola leucocephala

Slate-headed Tody-Tyrant Poecilotriccus sylvia

tody-flycatcher Todirostrum spp.

flycatcher Myiozetetes spp.

TROGLODYTIDAE

Rufous-and-white Wren Thryothorus rufalbus (Panama: Loetchser 1952, Wetmore 1968)

Plain Wren Thryothorus modestus (Costa Rica: Kiff and Williams 1978)

EMBERIZIDAE

Black-striped Sparrow Arremonops conirostris