Black-billed Cuckoo

Coccyzus erythropthalmusOrder: CUCULIFORMESFamily: Cuckoos and Roadrunners (Cuculidae)

General

Black-billed Cuckoo: Medium-sized cuckoo with brown upperparts and white underparts. Eye-ring is red and decurved bill is black. Tail is long with faint white, dark-eyed spots underneath. Sexes are similar. Juvenile has orange eye-ring.

Range and Habitat

Black-billed Cuckoo: Breeds from Alberta and Montana east to Maritime Provinces, and south to northern Texas, Arkansas, and South Carolina. Spends winters in South America. Preferred habitats include moist thickets in low overgrown pastures and orchards; also occurs in thicker undergrowth and sparse woodlands.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"cu-cu-cu or cu-cu-cu-cu"

Interesting Facts

Spiny caterpillars account for a large part of the Black-billed Cuckoo’s diet. The spines of the caterpillars stick in the lining of the bird’s stomach. The stomach lining is periodically shed to remove the spines.

Their tendency to call more frequently prior to rain accounts for their nickname, “Rain Crow.”

A group of cuckoos are collectively known as a "cooch" and an "asylum" of cuckoos.

Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Black-billed Cuckoo

Black-billed Cuckoo: Medium cuckoo with brown upperparts, white underparts. Eye-ring is red and decurved bill is black. Tail is long with faint white, dark-eyed spots underneath. Feeds primarily on caterpillars, also eats insects, small fish, mollusks and fruits. Makes low flights of short duration.

● Song: "cu-cu-cu or cu-cu-cu-cu"

● Foraging & Feeding: Black-billed Cuckoo: Feeds primarily on insects, particularly caterpillars.

● Breeding & nesting: Black-billed Cuckoo: Two to five darkly marked, blue-green eggs are laid in a flimsy, shallow nest made of twigs, lined with grass and plant down, and built within a few feet of the ground in a dense thicket. Incubation ranges from 10 to 14 days and is carried out by both parents.

● Similar species: Black-billed Cuckoo: Adult Yellow-billed Cuckoo has yellow-based bill and cinnamon-brown primaries in all plumages, and larger white, "eyeless” tail spots below. Juvenile Yellow-billed Cuckoo can be black-billed but has pale white, "eyeless” tail spots below tail. Mangrove Cuckoo has yellow-based bill, black mask, buff breast, and larger, "eyeless” white tail spots below.

Flight Pattern

Often flies low and makes short flights from tree to another.

● Range & Habitat: Black-billed Cuckoo: Breeds from Alberta and Montana east to Maritime Provinces, and south to northern Texas, Arkansas, and South Carolina. Spends winters in South America. Preferred habitats include moist thickets in low overgrown pastures and orchards; also occurs in thicker undergrowth and sparse woodlands.

^BreedingMonogamous

^PopulationUncommon to fairly common

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight3.6 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America