see the bird; the well-known sound comes to us, like a wandering
voice, from the depths of some shady retreat, but we cannot see
the hidden author. We can recognize it easily as the voice of
a cuckoo, but it is not always so easy to identify the species
by its notes, though some keen observers claim that they can do
so. Certain songs are characteristic of each of the two species,
but both have a great variety of notes and many notes that are
much alike in both. The notes of the yellow-billed cuckoo may be
a trifle harsher and a little louder, but they are not always
recognizable. The characteristic note of the yellow-billed
cuckoo is well described by Charles J. Spiker (1935) as follows:
“What may be considered the song of this species is a series
of rapid, wooden-sounding syllables resembling the following:
_Kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk-ceaow-ceaow-ceaow-ceaow_; the _kuks_ being
given rapidly, the _ceaows_ more deliberately and with longer
intervals.”
Bendire (1895) writes:
One of their commonest notes is a low “noo-coo-coo-coo;”
another sounds more like “cow-cow-cow” or “kow-kow-kow,”
several times repeated; others resemble the syllables of
“ough, ough, ough,” slowly and softly uttered; some remind
me of the “kloop-kloop” of the Bittern; occasionally a note
something like the “kiuh-kiuh-kiuh” of the Flicker is also
uttered; a low sharp “tou-wity-whit” and “hweet hwee” is
also heard during the nesting season. Though ordinarily not
what might be called a social bird, I have sometimes during
the mating season seen as many as eight in the same tree,
and on such occasions they indulge in quite a number of
calls, and if the listener can only keep still long enough
he has an excellent opportunity to hear a regular Cuckoo
concert.
Various other interpretations of the different notes have been
given by other writers, but the above quotations cover fairly well
the ordinary variations. The song, as given by Mr. Spiker above, is
sometimes more prolonged by lengthening the series of _kuks_, with
increasing speed of utterance and adding to the series of _ceaows_,
with slowly decreasing speed. I believe that the black-billed
cuckoo never gives this prolonged song, accelerated during the
first half and retarded during the last half; its song is given
in more even time, and is generally shorter. The song of the
yellow-billed cuckoo is often heard during the night, and its notes
are often uttered while flying.
_Field marks._--A cuckoo may be easily recognized as a cuckoo by
its size, shape, and color--a long, slender bird, longer than a
robin, with a long tail, olive-brown above and white below; but the
two species look very much alike unless the distinctive markings
can be clearly seen. The yellow lower mandible of this species can
be seen only at short range. But the rufous in the wing feathers is
evident in flight, and the lateral tail feathers are conspicuously
black, with large terminal white areas clearly defined. At very
close range the yellow eyelids of this species may be seen.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Temperate North America, the Caribbean region, South and
Central America; casual on Bermuda and accidental in western Europe.
_Breeding range._--The breeding range of the yellow-billed
cuckoo extends =north= to southern British Columbia (Kamloops);
northeastern Oregon (Keenys Ferry); northern Utah (Salt Lake City);
northern Colorado (Loveland, Greeley, and Fort Morgan); South
Dakota (White River, Yankton, and Sioux Falls); Minnesota (Fosston
and St. Paul); Wisconsin (Ladysmith, Waupaca, and New London);
northern Michigan (Blaney and Sault Ste. Marie); southern Ontario
(Listowel, Rosseau, and Ottawa); northern New York (Watertown
and Plattsburg); and southern Maine (Auburn). From this point
the breeding range extends southward along the Atlantic coast to
Florida (New Smyrna and Kissimmee); the Bahama Islands (Inagua
Island); probably the Dominican Republic (Dajabon); and the Virgin
Islands (St. Croix). =South= to the Virgin Islands (St. Croix);
Jamaica (Port Henderson); Coahuila (Sabinas River); southern Sonora
(Guaymas); and southern Baja California (San Jose del Rancho).
=West= to Baja California (San Jose del Rancho and Cerro Prieto);
California (Wilmington, Watsonville, Santa Clara, and Redding);
Oregon (Salem); Washington (Grays Harbor, Tacoma, and Seattle); and
British Columbia (Victoria, Chilliwack, and Kamloops).
The range as outlined is for the entire species, which has been
separated into two geographic races. The yellow-billed cuckoo (_C.
a. americanus_) occupies the eastern part of the range west to
South Dakota, Nebraska, eastern Colorado, and Oklahoma, while the
California cuckoo (_C. a. occidentalis_) is found over the rest of
the country to the Pacific coast.
_Winter range._--The winter home of this species has not been
accurately determined, but it extends =north= to northern Colombia
(Santa Marta, Bonda, Medellin, and Antioquia); and Venezuela (San
Cristobal, Altagracia, the Orinoco River region, and Nericagua). It
has been found at this season =east= to southeastern Brazil (São
Paulo); Uruguay (Rio Negro); and eastern Argentina (Buenos Aires
and Lomas de Zamora). =South=, probably only casually to central
Argentina (Lomas de Zamora and Saladillo). =West= to Argentina
(Saladillo and La Riojo); Ecuador (Nono, Chimbo, Cumbaya, and
Guapulo); and Colombia (Cienaga and Santa Marta).
_Spring migration._--Early dates of spring arrival are:
Florida--Melrose, March 12; Daytona Beach, April 9; Pensacola,
April 13. Alabama--Autaugaville, April 16. Georgia--Savannah,
March 24; Kirkwood, April 7. South Carolina--Charleston, April
14. North Carolina--Raleigh, April 25; Weaverville, May 1.
Virginia--Lawrenceville, April 23; New Market, April 26. District
of Columbia--Washington, April 27. Pennsylvania--Philadelphia,
April 20; Beaver, May 6; Renovo, May 11. New Jersey--Morristown,
April 7; Elizabeth, May 9. New York--Shelter Island, May 2;
Rhinebeck, May 3; Watertown, May 12. Connecticut--Hartford,
May 9; Jewett City, May 10. Rhode Island--Providence, May
11. Massachusetts--Boston, May 4; Beverly, May 15. New Hampshire--
Milford, May 11. Vermont--St. Johnsbury, May 27. Maine--Lewiston,
May 6; Fryeburg, May 19. Mississippi--Biloxi, April 6; Rodney,
April 8; Oakvale, April 10. Arkansas--Helena, April 19; Delight,
April 24. Tennessee--Chattanooga, April 10; Knoxville, April
27. Kentucky--Eubank, April 22; Bowling Green, April 24.
Missouri--St. Louis, April 28; Kansas City, April 30; Concordia,
May 1. Illinois--Rantoul, May 2; Chicago, May 4; Olney, May 5.
Indiana--Terre Haute, April 17; Fort Wayne, April 29; Waterloo, May
4. Ohio--Oberlin, April 26; Columbus, April 29; Youngstown, May 7.
Michigan--Detroit, May 4; Battle Creek, May 11. Ontario--London,
May 8; Guelph, May 12. Iowa--Sioux City, April 30; Grinnell, May
9. Wisconsin--Madison, May 10; Racine, May 10; La Crosse, May 12.
Minnesota--Minneapolis, May 6; Winona, May 8. Texas--Fredericksburg,
April 1; Kerrville, April 7; San Antonio, April 14. Oklahoma--
Skiatook, April 20; Oklahoma City, May 3. Kansas--Ottawa,
April 25; Onaga, April 28. Nebraska--Red Cloud, April 29; Lincoln,
May 7. South Dakota--Vermillion, May 17. New Mexico--State
College, May 25. Arizona--Phoenix, May 1; Tombstone, May 20.
Colorado--Longmont, May 20; Denver, May 28. California--Petaluma,
April 18; Pico, May 5; Berryessa, May 13. Oregon--Sauvies Island,
April 24. Washington--Tacoma, May 3.
_Fall migration._--Late dates of fall departure are: California--
Murphys, September 1; Vineland, September 22. Colorado--Yuma,
September 3; Clear Creek, September 8. Arizona--Tucson, September
8. New Mexico--Mesilla Park, September 7; State College, September
18. North Dakota--Grafton, September 4. South Dakota--Lennox,
September 15; Yankton, September 24. Nebraska--Dunbar, September
27; Lincoln, October 5. Kansas--Onaga, October 1. Oklahoma--Copan,
September 23; Kenton, September 30. Texas--Bonham, September 25;
Swan, September 28; Kerrville, October 19. Minnesota--Minneapolis,
October 1; Hastings, October 20. Wisconsin--Madison, September 27;
Racine, October 6. Iowa--Grinnell, October 22. Ontario--Galt, October
2; London, October 11; Point Pelee, October 16. Michigan--Detroit,
October 8. Ohio--Youngstown, October 12; Columbus, October 19;
Oberlin, October 21. Indiana--Sedan, October 13. Illinois--Chicago,
October 18; Rantoul, October 24. Missouri--Concordia, October 10.
Kentucky--Lexington, October 10. Tennessee--Nashville, October 11.
Arkansas--Delight, October 20. Mississippi--Biloxi, October 11.
Maine--Fryeburg, September 1. Vermont--St. Johnsbury, September
12. Massachusetts--Marthas Vineyard, September 24; Lanesborough,
September 29; Hadley, October 18. Connecticut--Meriden, October 12;
New Haven, October 16; Portland, October 17. New York--Rhinebeck,
October 1; New York City, October 12. New Jersey--Morristown,
October 9; Elizabeth, October 12. Pennsylvania--Beaver, September
27; Philadelphia, October 17; Renovo, November 12. District of
Columbia--Washington, October 13. Virginia--Lawrenceville, October
12. North Carolina--Raleigh, October 17. South Carolina--Mount
Pleasant, November 7. Georgia--Savannah, October 19. Florida--
Pensacola, November 2.
_Casual records._--While the yellow-billed cuckoo may be considered
only as a casual visitor to Bermuda, an extraordinary invasion
was recorded on October 9, 1849, when thousands of individuals
suddenly appeared in all parts of the island; a few more have been
subsequently reported. During the period from 1825 to 1921 it was
recorded fully a dozen times from England, Scotland, Ireland,
and Wales, all these occurrences being in fall and mostly during
October. One was taken at Bois de Lessines, Belgium, in October
1874, and one was collected at Turin, Italy, on October 28,
1883. Two occurrences have been recorded from the southern part
of France, but there is some question that they were correctly
identified.
_Egg dates._--Arizona: 13 records, June 28 to August 24; 7 records,
July 19 to August 22.
California: 55 records, May 15 to August 20; 28 records, June 17 to
July 10, indicating the height of the season.
Florida: 19 records, April 12 to August 25; 10 records, April 16 to
May 16.
Illinois: 39 records, May 20 to July 19; 20 records, June 4 to 26.
New York: 23 records, May 24 to August 19; 12 records, June 4 to 11.
Pennsylvania: 13 records, June 6 to July 29.
Texas: 34 records, March 22 to June 30; 17 records, May 6 to June 5.
COCCYZUS AMERICANUS OCCIDENTALIS Ridgway
CALIFORNIA CUCKOO
PLATE 6
HABITS
This western race of our common yellow-billed cuckoo has been
separated on very slight average characters, hardly worthy of
recognition in nomenclature. I am inclined to agree with Harry S.
Swarth (1929), who says:
Between the eastern and western races of the Yellow-billed
Cuckoo there is a slight average difference in size,
the western bird being the larger and with a somewhat
heavier bill. There is a rather wide range of variation
in specimens from any one locality, * * * and the largest
eastern birds do not fall far short of the maximum
measurements of western specimens. Birds from the Pacific
coast are the largest, those from central Arizona near the
type locality of _occidentalis_ (the Santa Rita Mountains)
are intermediate in size. The subspecies would have a
better claim to recognition if restricted to the Pacific
coast. * * * The subspecies is certainly as slightly
differentiated as any in our _Check-list_, and I feel that
no violence to the facts would result from suppression of
the name.
The California cuckoo is nowhere abundant but seems to be generally
distributed, in suitable localities, throughout its range from
British Columbia to Lower California and other parts of Mexico.
In southern California, its favorite haunts seem to be the willow
thickets and groves along the beds of streams, or in willow-bottom
sloughs, such as the famous Nigger Slough, which formerly existed
near Los Angeles. Alfred C. Shelton (1911) describes a favorite
haunt in Sonoma County, Calif., as follows: “In the locality of
which I write, about five miles southeast of Sabastopol, this
stream, known locally as the ‘Lagoon’, becomes, after some winter
storm, a turbulent river, flooding acres upon acres of bottom
land. In summer its course is marked by a chain of long, rather
narrow ponds, many of which are deep. The banks, and much of the
intervening space between these ponds, are covered with a thick
growth of willow, small ash and scrub oak, while the whole is
tangled together with an undergrowth of poison oak, wild blackberry
and various creepers, forming, as it were, an impenetrable jungle,
hanging far out over the water.”
_Spring._--Mr. Shelton (1911) has this to say about the spring
movements of the California cuckoo:
Of all migratory birds breeding in this vicinity, the
Cuckoo is the last to arrive in the spring, usually
appearing during the latter part of May or the first week
of June. Upon its arrival, this bird keeps to the higher
land, among the oaks and other timber, for a period of
two or three weeks before retiring to the willow bottoms
to breed. During this period it is wild and shy and
difficult to approach. Most active in the early morning,
its characteristic note, a loud, clear “kow-kow-kow,” may
be heard coming from some tree or group of trees, and
perchance an answering “kow-kow-kow,” may come from another
tree, some distance away. * * *
After the birds retire to the willow bottoms to breed,
their entire attitude changes. When watched and studied in
the seclusion of their brush grown haunts, while engrossed
with the cares of their domestic duties, the Cuckoos
cease to be the wild, shy birds of the upland timber. The
familiar “kow-kow-kow” is now forsaken for another note,
a low guttural note, “kuk-kuk-kuk,” always uttered by a
brooding bird and is the most common call of the cuckoo
during the breeding season.
_Courtship._--J. H. Bowles (Dawson and Bowles, 1909) writes: “While
standing in an open woodland listening to a pair of Cuckoos calling
to each other, I saw the male suddenly fly past with a large green
worm in his bill. He flew directly to the female, who was perched
in a tree a few yards distant, and for a moment or two they sat
motionless a few inches apart looking at each other. The male
then hovered lightly over his mate and, settling gently upon her
shoulders, gracefully bent over and placed the worm in her bill. It
was a pretty and daintily performed piece of love-making.”
_Nesting._--The nesting habits of the California cuckoo are much
like those of its eastern relative. In California its favorite
nesting sites are in willow thickets in the river bottoms, or in
such swampy lowlands as those referred to above. D. E. Brown writes
to me that it is a rare bird in western Washington, and says: “It
is found mostly in willow swamps, on the shores of fresh-water
lakes, and along streams where the underbrush is thick. I have
seldom seen it very far away from fresh water and never in real
thick woods. It is a late arrival and does not begin nest building
until about the fourth of July. I have found about a dozen occupied
nests and only one of these was earlier than the above date; this
one was on June 19. All these nests were in willow or wild-rose
bushes, except one which was in a spirea bush. All nests were 2 to
8 feet from the ground, or water when built in swamps. The nest is
a very frail, small affair composed of twigs loosely put together
and lined with finer twigs and sometimes a few leaves. Most of the
nests that I have seen have been so very flat and small that they
would be exceedingly hard to find if the birds were not on them.”
A nest in the Thayer collection, taken near Kirkland, Wash., on
July 7, 1909, was found in an open space in a fir forest in low
ground, which was dotted with a second growth of fir and some
_Osmaronia_ and _Spiraea_; it was placed on a branch of a fir on
the exposed side of the tree, 9 feet from the ground; it was made
of old fir twigs and lined with fresh fir twigs. I have heard of
other Washington nests in fir trees.
Major Bendire (1895) says:
The nests here [Arizona] were placed in willow or mesquite
thickets, from 10 to 15 feet from the ground, and they were
usually fairly well concealed by the surrounding foliage.
* * * If the California Cuckoo showed the same parasitic
habit of occasionally depositing one or more of its eggs in
the nests of other birds, as its eastern relatives are now
and then known to do, I believe that I should have observed
the fact in southern Arizona. Here I found eight of their
nests with eggs, and fully five hundred nests of smaller
birds, which nested in similar localities among the willow
thickets and mesquite bushes, overrun with vines, in the
creek bottoms, but not a single instance of parasitism came
under my observation.
Wilson C. Hanna (1937) has published an interesting paper on the
nesting habits of the California cuckoo in the San Bernardino
Valley, Calif., with a photograph of a nest containing the unusual
number of seven eggs; he writes:
I have rather complete notes on twenty-four nests that
I have examined in the field, six along Warm Creek and
eighteen along the Santa Ana River, and with two exceptions
all were in willow trees. In one case the nest was 11 feet
up in an alder tree next to the trunk, and in the other
case 30 feet up in a cottonwood tree on top of a bare limb
partly supported by a few twigs and therefore conspicuous.
The last mentioned nest was ten feet higher than any
other nest I have seen. Six of the nests in willows were
either partly supported by or covered with wild grape
vines, another nest was well concealed in the center of
live mistletoe, while still another was well hidden in
poison oak that was growing over the dead willow tree. A
few nests were placed next to the trunks of trees, but by
far the most common location was well out on a horizontal
or leaning limb. The average height above ground or water
was less than thirteen feet and two were only four feet
up. A good supply of rope and a ladder were necessary for
examining some of the nests without disturbing them or the
surroundings.
Nests were always loose structures, of coarse twigs for a
foundation, sometimes with a little superimposed grape-vine
bark, cottonwood bark, or rootlets. In some cases there was
no other lining and eggs could be seen through the bottom
of the nest; but usually there were fresh or old leaves,
bark strips, or willow cotton. In only one nest was there a
feather in the lining. Often the nests were much longer in
one dimension than the other, in one case four inches wide
and twelve inches long.
_Eggs._--The California cuckoo lays usually three or four eggs,
occasionally only two. These are indistinguishable from those of
the eastern yellow-billed cuckoo and average only slightly larger.
The measurements of 43 eggs average 31.1 by 23.1 millimeters; the
eggs showing the four extremes measure =35.5= by 23.5, 33.5 by
=25=, and =27.5= by =21= millimeters.
_Food._--Bendire (1895) says that in a brood that he watched, the
young were fed “always with a large black cricket (_Anabus simplex_
or _purpuratus_) * * *. They picked most of these repulsive-looking
creatures from grass stalks and low shrubs on which they were
feeding, and although there were numbers of them to be found all
around, as well as in camp, they generally went off some little
distance to get them.”
Mr. Swarth (1929) says that a female, collected in Arizona,
“contained in its stomach two green caterpillars and a lizard 100
millimeters long, the latter swallowed entire and rolled into a
coil. This seems a startling diet for a tree-dwelling cuckoo,
but there is at least one other instance reported, also from the
vicinity of Tucson, of a lizard being taken by one of these birds.”
COCCYZUS ERYTHROPTHALMUS (Wilson)
BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO
PLATES 8–11
HABITS
The black-billed cuckoo is not so widely distributed as the
yellow-billed, being confined in the breeding season to practically
the northern half of the United States and southern Canada east
of the Rocky Mountains. Within this range it seems to be commoner
northward and rarer southward than the other species, ranging
farther north and not so far south.
In appearance and habits our two cuckoos are very much alike,
and their haunts are similar; both are often found together, or
in similar places, though the black-billed is rather more of a
woodland bird and rather more retiring than the yellow-billed.
William Brewster (1906) says that in the Cambridge region it is
“more given to haunting extensive tracts of dry upland woods and
to nesting in wild apple trees, Virginia junipers and barberry
bushes in remote rocky pastures such as those which lie scattered
along the crest and sides of the high ridge between Arlington and
Waverley.”
_Courtship._--William Brewster (1937a) writes: “On July 15, 1908,
I witnessed the coition of two Black-billed Cuckoos in woods near
Bethel, Maine. It took place on a branch only three or four feet
above the ground. Although performed listlessly and intermittently,
it was singularly protracted, for the two birds remained together
at least four or five minutes, and did not finally separate until
disturbed by my approach, when the male flew away and presently
sang once. The female stayed quietly on her perch until I got near
enough to see that she was a fully adult bird.”
_Nesting._--Most of the New England nests on which I have data were
placed at low elevations, 2 to 4 feet above ground, in various
small trees, bushes, or thickets. My first nest was the highest, 10
feet up, in the top of a leaning black birch in a strip of swampy
woods and brushy thickets along a small brook. Another was 8 feet
from the ground in a dense thicket of shrubbery and blackberry
vines. Three nests were in small white pines, 3 to 4 feet up, in
rather open spaces overgrown with various shrubs and small trees
near the edges of the woods; the nests were placed on horizontal
branches, against the trunk, and well concealed among the dense
branches. Near Asquam Lake in New Hampshire I saw two nests in
thick clumps of mountain-laurel in some dense and heavy deciduous
woods, where the land sloped down to the lake; the mountain-laurel
grew here in extensive patches, but not very high, seldom over 3 or
4 feet; the large and well-made nests were only 2 and 3 feet from
the ground, but fairly well concealed.
Some nests of the black-billed cuckoo are very flimsy affairs,
but often they are much more substantially built than the nests
of the yellow-billed cuckoo. Owen Durfee describes in his notes a
well-made nest that he found in a clump of chinquapin oaks near
a road in Rehoboth, Mass. It was made of oak twigs and dry fern
stalks, many of the twigs being fresh, with leaves attached; it
was lined with dry oak leaves and a few fresh ones. It measured 8
inches in outside diameter and 3 by 3½ inches in inside diameter,
being hollowed to a depth of 1 inch. There is a beautiful nest in
the Thayer collection, taken from a thicket in Lancaster, Mass.,
7 feet from the ground; it has a well-made foundation of coarse
twigs, tufts of grass, and burs; and it is profusely lined with the
green leaves and the cottony catkins of the poplar. S. F. Rathbun
writes to me of an interesting nest that he found: “The nest was
a saucer-shaped affair made entirely of the burs from the burdock
plant, simply stuck together so as to form a shallow receptacle for
the eggs. As a lining for the nest a few dry grasses were used, and
the burs with the grasses represented the entire structure. The
cuckoo certainly showed ingenuity when it made this nest, for it
could not have been more simply or easily constructed.”