The yellow-billed cuckoo is a slender bird, 10.2-11.8 inches (26-30 cm) in length with a wingspan of 15-17 inches (38.1-43.2 cm).
It has a long, grayish-brown tail. The underside of its tail is dark brown and has two rows of large white spots. It has a down-curved bill that is black on the top and yellow on the bottom, and a ring of gray skin around its eyes.
It is grayish-brown on its head and back with a rusty-red patch on its wings. It has a dull white breast and belly. Males and females look alike, but females are a little larger.
The yellow-billed cuckoo is found in open woodlands and forested streams with dense, low vegetation. It is often found in orchards, overgrown pastures, abandoned agricultural fields, shrublands, and thickets*.
*A thicket is a dense group of bushes, shrubs, or small trees that grow very close together.
Caterpillars make up a large part of the yellow-billed cuckoo’s diet. It also eats other large insects, bird eggs, berries, fruits, small amphibians, and seeds.
Both the male and the female yellow-billed cuckoo build a nest of twigs, roots, leaves, grass, and pine needles low in a tree or bush. The female lays 2-4 eggs, and both parents incubate the eggs for 10-13 days.
Both parents feed and care for the chicks. The chicks leave the nest in 7-9 days and fly when they are 21 days old. The female yellow-billed cuckoo sometimes lays her eggs in the nest of another bird.
The yellow-billed cuckoo has a lifespan of 4-6 years in the wild.
The yellow-billed cuckoo is one of only a few bird species that eat hairy caterpillars. In the east, the caterpillar of the eastern tent moth (Malacosoma americanum) is a favorite meal.
Some people think the yellow-billed cuckoo calls out more on rainy days, so it is sometimes called the “rain crow.”
Support for NatureWorks is provided by:
The yellow-billed cuckoo breeds in New Hampshire and migrates to South America in the fall.
The yellow-billed cuckoo breeds from the Great Plains to Texas and east to the Atlantic Coast states.
It is also found in scattered locations in the western United States. It winters in South America.
