Field Identification

The Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) is 11-13" (28-33 cm), and known as a cuckoo by the slim sinuous look, brown back, and white underparts.  It is differentiated from other cuckoos by:

Rufous Color of Wings and Primaries

White Spots at Tips of Black Undertail Feathers

Yellow  Lower Mandible; Slightly Curved Bill.

Generally, the bird is grayish brown above and white-below.  Juvenile plumage is held well into fall.  Juveniles have a paler pattern on the tail and the bill may show little or no yellow color.  This species may be confused with the Black-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus erythropthalmus) but the Black-billed Cuckoo lacks the rufous primaries, yellow bill, undertail markings are grey and white instead of bold black and white, and has a reddish eye ring (National Geographic Society (1987). 

The Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus occidentalis) is differentiated from the eastern sub-species (C. a. americanus) by a larger and thicker bill, longer wings and tails, and by a slightly more gray coloration (Ridgeway 1887; Franzreb and Laymon 1993).  

    The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is found in riparian habitat.  Song sounds hollow and wooden, a rapid staccato kut-kut-kut   or ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-kow-kow-kow that usually slows and descends to a kakakowlp-kowlp ending (Peterson (1990). 

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