Black-billed Cuckoo - Dickinson's Birds

Occurrence in Amherst & Connecticut Valley, Mass.

C19

Common summer resident

May - September

C20

Irregular common summer resident; arrives April 27, May 2, 6) 10, departs October 4. —Bagg & Eliot

April - October

C21

Arrives late April–mid-May, departs September–October. —Mass Audubon

April - October

Habitat

wood edges, groves, thickets

Nest Materials

twigs, grass, green leaves, pine needles, stalks, plant fibers, rootlets, mosses, spiderwebs, rubbish

19th-20th Century Field Notes

BLACK - BILLED CUCKOO . Above , iridescent olive - brown ; beneath , white ; ring around eye , red in adult , yellow in young ; bill , black and bluish ; tail with little white . Length , 12 inches . Common summer resident . Earliest arrival , May 13 ; departs in August or September . Raises 1 brood . Eggs 2 - 4 , pale blue . Nest of fine twigs , grass , down , and rubbish , loosely put together , in a low tree or bush . Eggs laid the last of May . Note , like that of a tree - toad . Feeds on insects . Beneficial .

—H.L. Clark, 1887

21st Century Conservation Notes

Local numbers rise and fall as birds move around in response to caterpillar outbreaks. Surveys suggest no major change in overall population in North America.*