Bay-breasted Cuckoo

The bay-breasted cuckoo is 46 to 51 cm (18 to 20 in) long, about half of which is the tail. One male specimen weighed 128 g (4.5 oz). The species' bill is stout and decurved, with a black maxilla and a yellow mandible. Males and females have the same plumage. Adults have gray upperparts with chestnut on the wing's primaries, a gray face, a dark chestnut chin and breast, a pale rufous belly, and gray undertail coverts. Their tail is black with large white tips. Juveniles apparently differ from adults only in having narrower tail feathers. Voice: The bay-breasted cuckoo's most distinctive vocalization is "a forceful cua, often followed by accelerating u-ak-u-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak ak-ak." The first note gives the species its onomatopoeic local Dominican Republic name. It also "bleats like a lamb" and makes a "uttural crow-like call, described as 'ú-wack-ú-wack-ú-wack-'."