Mangrove Cuckoo (Coccyzus minor)

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

Return to Eastern Cuckoos

Color Photograph: Chan Robbins, U.S. Geological Survey

Mangrove Cuckoo (Coccyzus minor)

Identification: Length from tip of bill to tip of tail 12 inches. Most of head, back of the neck, wings, and back gray-brown. Head with a dark band through the eye and a yellow-tan chin. Bill with upper mandible black and lower mandible mostly yellow-tan, strongly curved downward. Underside a rich yellow-tan. Tail elongate, gray-brown with black margins with large, white, ovate areas.

Similar Species:  The rich yellow-tan underside and recurved bill make the Mangrove Cuckoo and easily identified species.

Breeding Range (see map below): The Mangrove Cuckoo's breeding rage in the United States is confined to the Florida Keys and the Gulf Coast of Florida. Otherwise the species is prevalent in the American tropics.

Overwintering Range:  See above.

Habitat:  The Mangrove Cuckoo is found in mangrove swamps.

Food: Insects.

Behavior:  Like most cuckoos, the Mangrove Cuckoo is usually hidden, in this case in the depths of the nearly impenetrable mangrove swamps. The voice is a rough gaw-gaw-gaw-gaw-gaw.

Reproduction:  The clutch consists of 2 to 3 pale green-blue eggs. The eggs are laid in a poorly constructed nest of twigs. The nest is placed in a mangrove or other shrub.