Black-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus erythopthalmus)

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A Field Guide to Eastern Birds. by Roger Tory Peterson.

Return to Eastern Cuckoos

Color Photograph: © by and courtesy of John Cassady

Black-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus erythopthalmus)

Identification: Length from tip of bill to tip of tail 12 inches. Wings, back, and upper half of head brown. Lower half of head, underside of neck, break, and abdomen white. Bill entirely black, hooked at the tip, and curved slightly downward. Eye surrounded by a red ring. Underside of tail light gray with smaller white, and black bands.

Similar Species:  The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is similar to the Black-billed Cuckoo. However the bill of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo has significant yellow areas. The underside of the tail is black with large, ovoid white areas.

Breeding Range (see map below): The Black-billed Cuckoo breeds throughout most of southeastern and south-central Canada southward in the east to the mid-Atlantic states and westward to the southern Great Plains states.

Overwintering Range:  This species overwinters in South America.

Habitat: The Black-billed Cuckoo is found in dense thickets, overgrown pastures, and in orchards.

Food: Largely insects with a particular fondness of moth larvae.

Behavior: Cuckoos, in general, are fond of hiding in tangled undergrowth and are difficult to see. They spend most of their feeding time moving through shrubs and bushes gleaning caterpillars and other insects from the branches and leaves. The voice is a series of soft cu-cu-cu notes.

Reproduction:  The clutch consists of 2 to 4 blue-green eggs. The eggs are laid in a poorly constructed nest of twigs lined with grass or plant down. The nest is usually placed in a shrub or bush near the ground.