Yellow - billed Cuckoo
Field Identification
The Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus
americanus) is 11-13" (28-33 cm), and known as a cuckoo by
the slim sinuous look, brown back, and white underparts. It is differentiated
from other cuckoos by:
Generally, the bird is grayish brown above and
white-below. Juvenile plumage is held well into fall. Juveniles have a paler
pattern on the tail and the bill may show little or no yellow color. This
species may be confused with the
Black-billed Cuckoo
(Coccyzus erythropthalmus) but the Black-billed Cuckoo lacks the rufous
primaries, yellow bill, undertail markings are grey and white instead of bold
black and white, and has a reddish eye ring (National
Geographic Society (1987).
The Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo
(Coccyzus americanus
occidentalis) is differentiated from the eastern
sub-species (C. a. americanus) by a larger and thicker bill, longer
wings and tails, and by a slightly more gray coloration (Ridgeway
1887;
Franzreb
and Laymon 1993).
The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is found in riparian
habitat. Song sounds hollow and wooden, a rapid staccato kut-kut-kut
or ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-kow-kow-kow that usually slows and descends
to a kakakowlp-kowlp ending (Peterson
(1990).
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