Yellow-billed cuckoo
Images copyright by Mark A. Chappell
Yellow-billed cuckoos are a rare and declining species in California, mainly because of habitat loss.
Their preferred breeding habitat is riverine forests of willows, cottonwoods, and other riparian species, a habitat that has been hard-hit by canalization and urbanization. Besides the distinctive yellow-and-black bill, these cuckoos have loud calls, white bellies, brown backs, and long tails with white spots on the underside (left). The bird in the upper images was skulking in a cottonwood tree at Big Morongo Reserve in the California desert on a warm July 4; the bird below (also photographed in July) was in a riparian forest near Manhattan, Kansas.
