BIRD OF THE MONTH - Yellow-billed Cuckoo

June 2026 - Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Yellow-billed Cuckoos are slender, long-tailed birds that manage to stay well hidden in deciduous woodlands. They usually sit stock still, even hunching their shoulders to conceal their crisp white underparts, as they hunt for large caterpillars. Bold white spots on the tail’s underside are often the most visible feature on a shaded perch. When they do leave a sheltered perch, the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo’s flight is swift and direct, with deep beats of their long pointed wings.

Fortunately, their drawn-out, knocking call is very distinctive. Male Yellow-Billed Cuckoos make a distinctive series of hollow, wooden-sounding ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-kow-kow-kowlp-kowlp-kowlp-kowlp syllables. The whole series is quite slow and gets slower toward the end; calls can last up to about 8 seconds.

Caterpillars top the list of Yellow-Billed Cuckoo prey: individual cuckoos eat thousands of caterpillars per season. Yellow-billed Cuckoos have one of the shortest nesting cycles of any bird species. From the start of incubation to fledging can take as little as 17 days. Although born naked, the young birds develop quickly; within a week of hatching the chicks are fully feathered and ready to leave the nest.

A long-distance migrant, Yellow-Billed Cuckoos migrate to South America for the winter.