|
Yellow-billed Cuckoo Coccyzus americanus Family: Cuculidae (Cuckoo)  |
Description: A slender long-tailed bird with soft brown upper body plumage except for a thin yellow orbital ring and more distinctive rufous primary feathers. Rufous is tawny or a redish orange-brown color. This upper body includes the crown, supercilium, auriculars, nape, scapulars, primary and secondary feathers, coverts, rump and tail. White underparts include the white throat, breast and belly. Move your cursor over the graphic for labels. There are also large white spots fringing the tail and under the tail. The yellow-billed cuckoo has a stout yellow curved bill. Their feet have two forward facing toes and two backward facing toes. Nesting: High above ground in a tree, vine or shrub, with a preference for wild overgrown grape vines. The nest itself is usually a small, frail, shallow platform of grass and sticks. On average, a brood will consist of 3 - 4 eggs, which are not all laid at the same time. The yellow-billed cuckoo will lay eggs in other birds' nests.Range: (North American months are from May - September) Breeds from interior California and Utah east to southwestern Quebec and southern New Brunswick, south to Arizona and Mexico. Migrates through Middle America and the Caribbean. Winters in the Andes, northern South America, and eastern Brazil.
|
|
|
Habitat: Broad leaf woodland edges such as in roadside trees and along streams. Dense thickets, rural orchards, overgrown fields (notably in crab apple trees), vines. Call: "cucucu" dove-like soft low notes |
||
|
|
||
