January 3, 2015 - Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus)

Requested by: my mom

Yellow-billed Cuckoos are found throughout the eastern United States and the Caribbean, migrating across Central America to northern parts of South America. Their diet consists largely of caterpillars, but can also include other invertebrates, as well as small frogs and lizards, fruits, and seeds. Yellow-billed Cuckoos are one of the only animals that can eat hairy caterpillars without any adverse effects. Tent caterpillars provide a major intermittent food source. Cuckoos flock to the caterpillar ‘tents’ often eating hundreds of the caterpillars at a time. The Yellow-billed Cuckoo will sometimes lay eggs in the nests of other birds, however they will only do this during times of major food abundance. It is far more common for them to raise their own young.