Black-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus erythropthalmus) | Cherokee Park | Louisville, KY USA
Spring migration has been winding down over the past week, but on this dreary, drizzling morning it became evident that as of today it is essentially over. I’m sure a few more stragglers will be passing through, but it is amazing to see the abrupt decline in the action. On May 9, I recorded a whopping 94 species, including 21 different warblers. Just three days ago I saw 14 species of warblers, spread across at least a couple dozen individual birds. Today I saw only about 10 warblers total representing just 5 different species. The migrants made their pit-stops in Louisville and are off to their summer homes in the north.
But… this black-billed cuckoo made the day well worth it. He or she was my 394th species - a “lifer!” Black-billed cuckoos are not exactly rare, but they are pretty uncommon and tend to be secretive and hard to spot. We were able to observe this one from a distance for just 30 seconds or so before it disappeared into the trees.
The black-billed is my 4th cuckoo species, and my observations of cuckoos have been oddly spread out. My first was a yellow-billed cuckoo I found in Costa Rica. Ironically, while yellow-billed cuckoos are fairly common here in Louisville in the warm months (I’ve seen several just this week), it was a very rare find in the Costa Rican forest. They winter in South America and only pass through Central America on their way north.
The black-billed is separated from the yellow-billed obviously by it’s darker bill, though that is not always definitive. The real distinction is the black-billed’s red eye ring, for which it is named: Coccyzus erythropthalmus - “eruthros” = red, and “opthalmos” - eye - the red-eyed cuckoo. The red-eye ring is just visible in the photo above.
Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) | Costa Rica
Cuckoo number two was also in Costa Rica, the stealthy but beautiful squirrel cuckoo (Piaya cayana). And yes, the squirrel cuckoo’s eyes are actually red, whereas it’s really the ring of skin around the eye that is red in the black-billed, but naming species is a tricky business.
Squirrel Cuckoo (Piaya cayana) | Costa Rica
My third species of the Cuculidae family was Geococcyx californianus, a bird you almost certainly know, but probably don’t realize is also a cuckoo - the greater roadrunner. The roadrunner is quite common, but I somehow have managed never to see one in my travels to the southwest until this year at the amazing Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico.
Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) | Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge | New Mexico, USA
So there you have it! Four species from three genera and one big happy family, Cuculidae, the cuckoos. Now for a better photo of the black-billed…
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