Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Coccyzus americanus
Slender, long-tailed bird that is more often heard than seen. Brown above and white below, with a yellow bill. Look for the large white spots on underside of tail. Wings flash rufous, especially obvious in flight. Stealthy and shy in dense forests and riparian areas, often sitting motionless for long periods of time. Feeds mainly on caterpillars and other insects. Uncommon but widespread breeder across much of North America; more southerly distribution than Black-billed Cuckoo. Winters in South America, where care should be taken to separate from very similar Pearly-breasted Cuckoo, which lacks rufous tones in wing. Separated from Black-billed Cuckoo by bill color, wing color, and tail pattern. Listen for its hoarse cooing song and knocking calls.
Identification
Adults have a long tail, brown above and black-and-white below, and a black curved bill with yellow especially on the lower mandible. The head and upper parts are brown and the underparts are white. There is a yellow ring around the eye. It shows cinnamon on the wings in flight. Juveniles are similar, but the black on the undertail is replaced by gray.<p>Measurements:
Taxonomy
The yellow-billed cuckoo was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other cuckoos in the genus Cuculus and coined the binomial name Cuculus americanus. Linnaeus based his description on the "Cuckow of Carolina" that had been described and illustrated in 1729-1732 by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. The yellow-billed cuckoo is now placed with 12 other species in the genus Coccyzus that was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. The genus name is from the Ancient Greek kokkuzō meaning "to cry cuckoo". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
- Scientific name
- Coccyzus americanus
- Authority
- (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Order
- Cuculiformes
- Family
- Cuculidae
- Genus
- Coccyzus
Range and habitat
Their breeding habitat is deciduous woods from southern Canada to Mexico and the Caribbean. They migrate to Central America and as far south as northern Argentina. This bird is a rare vagrant in western Europe.
- Breeding range
- NA, MA : s Canada to n Mexico and West Indies
- Non-breeding range
- SA
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
There is an ongoing debate regarding the taxonomic status of the Western race and whether it is distinct from those birds in the east. This question is significant to the conservation status of this species in the west, where it has declined to a tiny fraction of its population a century ago. Populations of this species in western North America are in steep decline. The bird disappeared from British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon during the first half of the twentieth century. Eastern populations have declined as well, though not as precipitously. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service listed the western Distinct Population Segment (DPS) of Yellow-billed Cuckoos as threatened under the Endangered Species Act on 11/3/2014, and the service also has established 546,335 acres in nine western states as critical habitat for the western DPS of the yellow-billed cuckoo. Controversy over the taxonomic status and heavy pressure from livestock and mining industries caused the Trump administration to attempt to end the species' protections, and the FWS reviewed the bird's listing. In September 2020, the USFWS determined that the western DPS of yellow-billed cuckoo is distinct, and the listing as Threatened is warranted.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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