The guira cuckoo (Guira guira) is a gregarious bird found widely in open and semi-open habitats of northeastern, eastern and southern Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, and northeastern Argentina. It is the only species placed in the genus Guira. Taxonomy The guira cuckoo was described and illustrated in 1648 by the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in his Historia Naturalis Brasiliae. He used the name "Guira angatara". The word Güirá means "bird" in the Guarani language. Later ornithologists based their descriptions on Marcgrave's account: Francis Willughby in 1678, John Ray in 1713, Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760, and Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1779. When the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin revised and expanded Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae in 1788 he included the guira cuckoo. He placed it with all the other cuckoos in the genus Cuculus and coined the binomial name Cuculus guira. The guira cuckoo is now the only species placed in the genus Guira that was introduced in 1830 by the French naturalist René Lesson. The species in monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. It is most closely related to the anis in the genus ''Crotophaga. Description The guira cuckoo has a total length of approximately and weighs . The sexes are very similar in appearance, except that the female is slightly larger than the male. Juveniles appear quite similar to adults. The species has dark brown upperparts streaked with white, and whitish-buff throat, breast, underparts and rump. The tail is relatively long and broad, dark brown in color with a white-tip, and the legs are dark gray. The eyes and beak are yellow to orange, with a thin ring of featherless yellow skin around the eye (this commonly fades in captivity). There is a prominent orange-rufous crest. The bird's call is unmistakable for being long and shrill, something between a long whistle and a wailing. Like other members of the subfamily Crotophaginae, the guira cuckoo gives off a strong, pungent odour. Behaviour The guira cuckoo is a bird of open habitats such as pastures and wetlands, and its range has expanded significantly due to deforestation. Within its distribution, it is commonly seen in suburban parks and gardens. Like the related squirrel cuckoo, the guira cuckoo is not a particularly adept flier, and usually flies only for short distances. It is often seen gliding or hopping from one perch to another while vocalizating loudly. Although it is primarily an