Yellow-billed Cuckoo - Ross Feldner The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is a shy bird that is often hidden behind thick vegetation and difficult to locate unless you hear its loud "Kowlp" cry ("ka, ka, ka, ka, ka, kow, kow, kowlp, kowlp"). Like most secretive birds, its migration and wintering habitat needs are not well known. Migrating yellow-billed cuckoos have been spotted in coastal scrub, second-growth forests and woodlands, hedgerows, and forest edges. The Yellow-billed Cuckoo will perch motionless on a tree limb, slowly moving its head to search for caterpillars, cicadas, katydids, and other insects. It will also trot or hop along the branch to grab a meal, or take a quick flight to catch flying insects. Other prey include frogs and lizards, which it either captures in trees or chases down on the ground and subdues with pecking. Although still fairly common in the east, western Yellow-billed Cuckoo numbers have plummeted over the past several decades, as their breeding range contracts. Pesticide use, resulting in eggshell thinning, may also be harming Yellow-billed Cuckoo populations. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved a petition in 2001 to list the western Yellow-billed Cuckoo as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. | |
