No widespread Neotropical genus haunts a birder more than Neomorphus, a group of 11 closely related "roadrunners-on-steroids" that are currently treated as constituting four to five species but that may eventually be understood to comprise seven or more. All forms are rare and seldom seen, some designated Endangered. As wary, terrestrial birds dependent on extensive humid forest from Nicaragua to Bolivia and Brazil, their future is not bright. Since the 1980s I've recommended the Cana area in Darien as the most reliable place to get lucky with the Central American representative of Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo, N. geoffroyi salvini, for I have seen geoffroyi more often there than anywhere throughout its range.

The chief mystery this bird still held for me was its song. I'd read descriptions of a low mooing, yet I had never heard anything from it but its electrifying bill snapping. Nor were there any audio recordings of the song of this taxon--until this February when, while feverishly birding a big swarm of raiding army ants in the company of my Cana tour group, I heard a soft, repetitive low humming that I immediately suspected belonged to Neomorphus! I quietly stepped aside from the group and recorded the spontaneous song for several minutes. Upon playback the vocalization ceased; then the bird rushed us, running to a log in the trail to emit a loud bill-snap before retreating across the trail into dense cover only to continue vocalizing in a slightly higher register at shorter intervals between phrases. Even though we hadn't seen this knockout as we had hoped, finally learning the song of this taxon and getting a quality recording was, for me, the knockout of the trip!
-- John Rowlett [Photo by Will & Gill Carter]