Bird Guide

Dark-billed Cuckoo vs Puerto Rican Lizard Cuckoo

Dark-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus melacoryphus)

Dark-billed Cuckoo

Coccyzus melacoryphus

Small50 gWoodland

The dark-billed cuckoo is 25 to 28 cm (9.8 to 11.0 in) long, about half of which is the tail. Males weigh about 42 to 54 g (1.5 to 1.9 oz) and females about 50 to 66 g (1.8 to 2.3 oz). Males and females have the same plumage. They have a gray crown and nape and grayish brown upperparts. Their wings are a darker grayish brown with no rufous. The upper surface of their tail is brown; the underside of the central pair of feathers is brown with black tips, the next pair blackish with narrow white tips, and the rest black with wide white tips. Voice: The dark-billed cuckoo's song is variously described as "six to eight resonant, buzzy kazoo-like notes" and "a ventriloquial ga-ga-ga-go-go." Another vocalization is "a descending series of guttural notes" that may also be a song. It makes "a dry-sounding buzz...dddddrr" call.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Thomaz de Carvalho Callado · CC BY 4.0
Puerto Rican Lizard Cuckoo (Coccyzus vieilloti)

Puerto Rican Lizard Cuckoo

Coccyzus vieilloti

Medium82 gWoodland

The Puerto Rican lizard cuckoo is 40 to 48 cm (16 to 19 in) long, about half of which is the tail. It has a long decurved bill with a black maxilla and a yellow mandible with a black tip. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have entirely gray-brown upperparts. Their throat and breast are gray and the belly and undertail coverts tawny. The upper surface of their tail is gray-brown and the underside gray brown darkening to black near the large white tips. Their eye is surrounded by bare red skin. Voice: The Puerto Rican lizard cuckoo's principal call is " a harsh series of ka-ka-ka-ka notes." The call is described in more detail as "an emphatic ka-ka-ka-ka of long duration gradually accelerating and becoming louder, sometimes with altered syllables at the end". The species also makes other calls likened to those of jays, crows, ravens, and doves.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Ron Knight · CC BY 2.0

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Dark-billed Cuckoo and Puerto Rican Lizard Cuckoo.