Gray-capped Cuckoo

The grey-capped cuckoo is 25 to 28 cm (9.8 to 11 in) long, about half of which is the tail. Males weigh 46 to 56 g (1.6 to 2.0 oz). The species' bill is stout, somewhat decurved, and black with sometimes a gray or yellow spot at the base of the mandible. Males and females have the same plumage. Adults have a slate-gray cap to below the eye. Their upperparts and wings are rufous brown. The upper surface of their tail is black; the underside of the central pair of feathers is black and the rest black with white tips. Their eye is surrounded by a narrow ring of bare skin that is yellow, white, or yellowish gray. Their underparts are dark rufous buff. Juveniles are similar to adults but have a brown crown and less white on the tail.

The grey-capped cuckoo has two separate populations. One is in northern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela and the other in western Ecuador and extreme northern Peru. The species has been documented as a vagrant on Bonaire (an island off the Venezuelan coast) and on the Galapagos Islands. Two reports from Panama have apparently not been accepted by the North American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society. The grey-capped cuckoo inhabits a variety of landscapes including tropical moist to dry semi-deciduous forest, arid forest, gallery forest, and shrubby savanna. In elevation it mostly ranges from sea level to 800 m (2,600 ft) in Peru, to 1,800 m (5,900 ft) in Ecuador, to 600 m (2,000 ft) in Colombia, and to 1,400 m (4,600 ft) in Venezuela. There are a few records from higher elevations.

The grey-capped cuckoo feeds on insects; caterpillars and some wasps appear to form the bulk of its diet.