Yellow-billed cuckoo
| Yellow-billed cuckoo | ||||||||||
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Yellow-billed cuckoo ( Coccyzus americanus ) |
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| Coccyzus americanus | ||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
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The yellow-billed cuckoo ( Coccyzus americanus ) is a species from the family of cuckoo birds that occurs exclusively in the New World. It breeds mainly in eastern North America, the Greater Antilles and parts of Mexico, but overwinters in South America during the winter half-year. During his migration in autumn and spring he can also be seen in Central America. The yellow-billed cuckoo, which lives very secretly, is a medium-sized, slender and long-tailed cuckoo that is mostly hidden in the foliage.
In contrast to a number of species within the cuckoo, the yellow-billed cuckoo mostly raises its offspring itself. As a facultative breeding parasite , however, it occasionally lays eggs in the nests of host birds.
The yellow-billed cuckoo has already been observed several times as a stray visitor in Great Britain and on mainland Europe.
features
The yellow-billed cuckoo reaches a body length of 28 to 32 centimeters, with the tail accounting for an average of around 15 centimeters. The beak has a length of 2.5 centimeters. The males weigh an average of 58 grams during the breeding season, the females are slightly heavier with an average of 65 grams. Before their train they can weigh up to 110 grams, after long flights their weight can drop to 31 grams.
There is no pronounced gender dimorphism . In both males and females, the forehead, the top of the head, the ear covers, the sides of the neck, the nape and the top of the body are of a plain brown. The hand and arm wings are reddish-brown at their base, and the tail feathers have conspicuous white spots at their ends.
The hand and arm wings are also brown to reddish brown on the underside. The underside of the body is otherwise white. The iris is dark brown and only gray in young birds that have just fledged. The eye ring is gray to yellow during the breeding season. The bill is slightly curved, the upper bill is black and turns yellow to orange towards the edge. The lower bill is yellow to orange-yellow and turns black at the tip.
Young birds are similar to the adult birds, with them the tips of the tail feathers are light, but not whitish. The typical yellow-billed cuckoo's beak color does not develop until they are two months old.
The yellow-billed cuckoo is very similar to the black- billed cuckoo, but it does not show any red-brown color on its body plumage, and it also lacks the white spots on the control feathers. The pearl-breasted cuckoo also has monochrome brown wing feathers. The mangrove cuckoo has a black face mask and is light ocher colored on the underside of the body.
voice
The typical call of the yellow-billed cuckoo is a staccato-like, guttural kuk-kuk-kuk , which is called slowly and with a falling pitch 8 to 12 times and ends in a kakakowlpkowlp . The interval until the next call is more than 10 minutes; the call can be heard most frequently during the morning hours.
Occasionally a harsh, fast kow-kow-kow-kow can be heard, the individual syllables of which are repeated up to 20 times. The call typically sounds when the partner bird is nearby and is also called by the bird sitting on the nest.
Distribution area
The yellow beak breeds in North America, Mexico and the Greater Antilles. The breeding area extends to the west of the state of Washington, the southwest and southeast Idaho, the southwest and north of Wyoming, the south of the Canadian state Manitoba, the southeast of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, the south of the Canadian State of Ontario and Southwest Quebec. Evidence of breeding is also available for New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, southern Maine, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Florida.
In California, Utah, Arizona, the yellow-billed cuckoo breeds rarely and is limited to a few occurrences. In the territory of Mexico there are contiguous breeding areas in the east of Sonora and in the west of Chihuahua . In eastern Mexico the yellow-billed cuckoo breeds in the northeast of Coahuila and in Tamaulipas .
Yellow-billed cuckoos generally return to their breeding grounds in eastern North America between the end of April and the beginning of May. In Florida, which is one of the more southern breeding areas, the return period is two to three weeks earlier. The yellow-billed cuckoos return to the west of the breeding area from mid-May to mid-June. The retreat to the wintering areas generally begins at the end of September to the beginning of October, but in exceptional cases the retreat can begin as early as the end of August and rarely last until December.
On the train, the yellow-billed cuckoo crosses the southern United States, Central America, Bermuda and the West Indies . In Guatemala they can be observed in April and May and September to December. In Panama they can be found in April, less often in May and from September to December.
The yellow-billed cuckoo's wintering area stretches from northern South America to northern Argentina, and yellow-billed cuckoos also hibernate less frequently in Panama. Yellow-billed cuckoos can be seen in the wintering area between August and early May.
Irrgast in Europe
Yellow-billed cuckoos are one of the species that are found again and again far beyond their actual breeding areas, migration routes and wintering areas. The cause is usually meteorological events, especially storms that can move migrating birds thousands of kilometers away. A yellow-billed cuckoo has been found in Greenland and three times in Iceland. Up until 2007 a total of 59 yellow-billed cuckoos were observed in Great Britain and 9 times in Ireland. There are also individual observations for France, Belgium, Denmark and Italy. Yellow-billed cuckoos can typically be found as random visitors in the period from September to November.
habitat
The yellow-billed cuckoo is a breeding bird in open forest areas and is often found near watercourses. In Mexico it breeds in forest areas along rivers up to altitudes of 1500 meters. During the migration, however, he can also be found at altitudes of 2500 meters.
During the procession he can be found at the edges of the forest, gallery forests and mangrove forests. In the wintering areas it uses not only forest areas but also the bushy savannah as a habitat.
Way of life
The yellow-billed cuckoo is a difficult bird to observe due to its way of life. It typically moves slowly through dense treetops and lurks there for prey, which will give themselves away through their movement. It often moves along the branch until it can reach the prey by stretching. Occasionally the yellow-billed cuckoo hops on a branch below a cluster of caterpillars and picks them up by flying up to the branch with the caterpillars. By flying up it also catches flying insects and it moves hopping on the ground to catch grasshoppers. Occasionally he can also be seen sunbathing in warm weather.
Startled yellow-billed cuckoos seek cover in treetops and turn their dark-colored back towards the disturber, through which they are difficult to make out in the treetops. You then remain immobile in the branches for a long time. If they are startled by the nest, they glide through the treetop with spread control feathers and flapping wings. They give out conspicuous meowing calls.
food
The diet consists mainly of caterpillars, most of which are poisonous or hairy. Forest pests such as gypsy moth and American weaver are part of the food spectrum . Crickets, beetles and mayflies also play a major role. But ants, creatures, grasshoppers and other insects are also eaten. Occasionally they also take frogs and lizards.
Reproduction
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Yellow-billed cuckoos usually raise two clutches in one breeding season. In years with a very abundant food supply, there may also be a third brood.
Courtship and nest
Courting males offer the female branches or caterpillars. Mating takes place on branches. The act of mating takes between three and five seconds. Both parent birds are involved in nest building, which extends beyond the point in time at which the egg-laying has started.
Yellow-billed cuckoos build their nests in the northeastern United States and southern Canada from late May to early August. In the American Midwest, the peak of nest building falls between June and August. The nest is a simple platform made of twigs and twigs that is either not padded or is laid out by the parent birds with dry and green leaves, pines and spruce needles, moss, dry flowers and strips of bark. The nest has a diameter of 10 to 35 centimeters. It is built either on a horizontal branch or in a fork of a branch. It is usually between one and six meters above the ground, but individual nests have also been observed at a top height of 27 meters.
Eggs
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The clutch consists of two to five eggs, in the west of the breeding area it comprises an average of 2.5 eggs. In the east, on the other hand, an average of 3.75 eggs. The eggs are dull pale blue to pale greenish blue. The shell is smooth, the single egg is elliptical in shape. The females begin to lay eggs 24 hours after the nest building has started; it lays one egg every day. The breeding season is nine to eleven days. Usually the females start brooding as soon as the first egg is laid.
Nestlings
The nestlings sleep with a weight of 8 to 9 grams. On the first day of life, they receive choked up food from their parent birds, after which they are fed insects, spiders, grasshoppers, tree frogs and larger lizards. The females stop feeding the nestlings after four to seven days, after which only the male takes care of them.
The nestlings grow up very quickly and reach the weight of 38 grams of fledglings by the fourth day of their lives. They fledge on the 8th or 9th day of life, they are then fed for up to 23 days, usually by the male parent bird.
Helpers with the brood
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Brooding couples are occasionally supported in rearing by a male helper who brings up to 40 percent of the food that the nestlings receive. This help with the rearing of the young allows the breeding pair to start a second clutch. Females occasionally give up their nestlings and start a new nest with another male, who may be the previous helper. The latter occasionally even continues to help raise the young birds of the first nest and is tolerated by the previous male. Occasionally the second male also causes an infanticide on the youngest nestling of the first nest.
Facultative Brood Parasitism
The yellow-billed cuckoo is a bird that mostly raises its young birds itself. In addition, however, there is also an optional brood parasitism. It often lays eggs in nests of the same species - among others, the black-billed cuckoo , with which large parts of the breeding area overlap , is affected . But it also lays eggs in the nests of other bird species. Among the parasitized species include, among others, the Mourning Dove , DICKCISSEL , robin , wood thrush , Cedar Waxwing , Northern Cardinal , Eastern Towhee and Red-winged Blackbird .
literature
- Jonathan Alderfer (Ed.): Complete Birds of Northamerica. National Geographic, Washington DC 2006, ISBN 0-7922-4175-4 .
- Johannes Erhitzøe, Clive F. Mann, Frederik P. Brammer, Richard A. Fuller: Cuckoos of the World (Helm Identification Guide) . Christopher Helm, London 2012, ISBN 978-0-7136-6034-0 .
Web links
Single receipts
- ↑ a b c d e f Erhitzøe, Mann, Brammer, Fuller: Cuckoos of the World . P. 292.
- ↑ a b c d e Erhitzøe, Mann, Brammer, Fuller: Cuckoos of the World . P. 290.
- ↑ Erhitzøe, Mann, Brammer, Fuller: Cuckoos of the World . P. 302.
- ↑ Erhitzøe, Mann, Brammer, Fuller: Cuckoos of the World . P. 298.
- ↑ a b c Erhitzøe, Mann, Brammer, Fuller: Cuckoos of the World . P. 291.
- ↑ a b c Erhitzøe, Mann, Brammer, Fuller: Cuckoos of the World . P. 293.