Black-billed cuckoo Coccyzus erythropthalmus

Identification Tips:

• Length: 11 inches
• Sexes similar
• Slender, long-tailed bird
• Black bill

Adult:

• Red orbital ring
• Cold brown head, nape, back, upperwings, and uppertail
• White chin, foreneck, breast and belly
• Tail is gray below with very narrow white tips to tail feathers

Juvenile:

• Yellow orbital ring
• Brown head, nape, back, upperwings and uppertail, with pale tips to wing coverts
• White chin, foreneck, breast and belly suffused with pale buff
• Tail is gray below with very narrow buff tips to tail feathers

Similar species:

Adult Yellow-billed Cuckoo has yellow-based bill and cinnamon primaries in all plumages, and larger white tail spots below. Juvenile Yellow-billed Cuckoos can be black-billed and can have small tail spots and are best identified by primary pattern. Mangrove Cuckoo has yellow-based bill, black mask, buff breast and larger white tail spots below.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.