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Yellow-billed Cuckoo | Coccyzus americanus
Geelsnavelkoekoek | Cuclillo piquiamarillo | Papa-lagarta-de-asa-vermelha
The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is a North American breeding bird that migrates over long distances to South America. The guide area lies on its migration route: in Colombia and Ecuador it is mainly a passage migrant, in eastern Peru and Bolivia also a winter visitor. It lives hidden in foliage and is most noticeable for its rufous primaries in flight.
Voice
Usually silent in the guide area. The call is a long series of wooden knocks that slows down and turns into kowlp-kowlp-kowlp; also a series of hollow coo notes.
Recording: Sue Riffe — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
28–30 cm, slender with a long, graduated tail. The upperparts are plain grey-brown, the underparts white. The primaries are rufous, which shows mainly in flight. The underside of the tail is black with large, sharply defined white tips. The bill is slightly decurved, with a black upper mandible and a mostly yellow lower mandible; the eye-ring is yellow to grey. The sexes are alike; juveniles have a fainter tail pattern and a less yellow lower mandible.
Confusion species
Black-billed Cuckoo Coccyzus erythropthalmus has an all-black bill, a red eye-ring in adults, hardly any rufous in the wing and much smaller white tail tips. Pearly-breasted Cuckoo Coccyzus euleri is slightly smaller and has no rufous in the primaries. Dark-billed Cuckoo Coccyzus melacoryphus and Mangrove Cuckoo Coccyzus minor are ochre below and have a dark mask.
Habitat
Forest edges, secondary forest, riparian woodland, flooded forest, gallery forest, scrub and plantations, mainly in the lowlands but on migration up to about 2500 m. It searches slowly and unseen in the foliage for caterpillars, including hairy ones, and other large insects. It does not breed in the guide area.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia and Ecuador mainly a passage migrant, both in the lowlands and in Andean valleys, with a few wintering birds. In Peru a passage migrant and winter visitor, mainly in the Amazonian lowlands. In Bolivia a winter visitor in the lowlands, mainly in the east and south. On the Galápagos a rare vagrant. It breeds from southern Canada to Mexico and the Caribbean and winters mainly in central South America south to northern Argentina.
- Resident
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
During passage in October–November and April–May in forest edges and scrub in the lowlands of Colombia and Ecuador; in the northern winter in riparian woodland and forest edges in eastern Bolivia.
Conservation status
Least Concern. In parts of North America its numbers have declined sharply through the loss of riparian woodland; the western breeding birds are protected there.
Scientific name
Coccyzus americanus | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Cuculus americanus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Coccyzus was introduced in 1816 by Vieillot. The genus name comes from Greek kokkuzō, 'to cry cuckoo'. The species name americanus refers to America, not necessarily the type locality. The specimen the first description was based on came from South Carolina, United States.