Cooperative Living September 2018 - 27

FeatheredFriends | Story and artwork by Carl " Spike " Knuth, Contributing Columnist
Black-Billed Cuckoo
O
ur first meeting was
sudden and brief. We
both stopped suddenly
in surprise and just stared at
each other.
I had been walking along a small
gravel road on the edge of a large
field when the bird suddenly
appeared on a fence post. I was
struck by the distinctive red rings
around its staring eyes and the
long, dark tail with obvious small
white spots on the underside. We
were only about 15 feet or so apart.
After a moment, the bird
departed in graceful flight as
quickly as it showed up. This was
my first introduction to the blackbilled
cuckoo.
The encounter was unusual in
that this is a bird of deep, dense
woodlands and to encounter it out
along an open field was somewhat
of an oddity. The fence that lined
the field separated it from a small,
brushy hillside on the edge of
small but dense woods. I could
only assume it was migrating
through the area.
The black-billed cuckoo is a
species that is somewhat shy,
solitary and secretive. It inhabits
the dense-shaded forests and is
seldom seen. Because it is so
reclusive, a person is more apt to
hear it rather than see it. It utters
a rapid " cu-cu-cu, cu-cu-cu, cu-cucu, "
usually in a grouping of three
but also a clear descending " cukow. "
One of its nicknames is
" kow kow, " from its calls. Another
is " rain crow, " because it was
believed its call predicted rain. It
often calls and is active at night.
Black-billed cuckoos begin
arriving in Virginia the last week of
co-opliving.com
A species that
is somewhat
shy, solitary
and secretive.
April. It is more a northern species
than its cousin, the yellow-billed
cuckoo. Here in Virginia, it is more
apt to be found in the foothills and
mountains. Like the yellow-billed
cuckoo, it is a slender, long-tailed
bird about a foot long, olive- or
grayish-brown above, whitish below
and a dark-gray under-tail with small
white spots that occasionally appear
as thin white bars. The bare skin
around its eyes is crimson and was
surprisingly noticeable when I first
saw it. The yellow-billed is different
in that it has noticeably larger white
spots on its tail, with rufous-colored
wings and yellow bill.
Black-bills nest primarily in
deciduous trees, but also in pines,
hemlocks or in vines such as grape
or Virginia creeper. Their nests may
be on the ground or as high up as 50
feet. Both sexes participate in nest
building. They build a flimsy nest
with a shallow cup of twigs, grasses,
catkins, ferns, and lined with pine
tags, plant fibers, mosses, dried
leaves and spiderwebs.
The hen lays two to five bluishgreen
eggs, often at intervals. When
they hatch in 10 to 14 days, a nest
may contain young of different sizes
and development because of the
differences in laying time. The
young are naked and black at first,
but in about a week they start to
show quill-like protrusions; feather
tubes that are light-colored and
hair-like.
As they start combing and
removing them, the tubes start to
break open revealing fluffy feathers
after eight or nine days. Should they
be disturbed in the nest, they assume
a statue-like stance pointing head
and bill skyward; a ploy to avoid
detection. Both parent birds feed
the young. Like cowbirds, blackbills
sometime parasitize other
birds by laying eggs in other
birds' nests
Black-bills feed on caterpillars
and larvae of all kinds, including
tent caterpillars, canker worms,
fall web worms, moth caterpillars,
cicada, katydids and others. They
have zygodactyl feet, with two
toes forward and two back like
woodpeckers, owls and ospreys.
This enables them to climb and
clamber around carefully in thick
foliage when feeding. They climb
around slowly in the branches and
in some cases will sit motionless
just waiting for prey.
Some of the caterpillars the birds
consume have spines and the
cuckoo will hammer them on a
branch to break the spines off.
However, some may be swallowed
whole and after a time the cuckoo
is able to shed its stomach lining by
coughing it up in a pellet much like
an owl. The black-bills will also eat
the eggs of other birds, slugs and
wild berries.
The range and abundance of the
black-billed cuckoo are difficult to
ascertain because they move
according to the abundance of their
food source. An outbreak of web
worms or gypsy moths can draw
them to an area, and where they
were one year they may not be
found in another.
I always felt fortunate to catch a
glimpse of this interesting bird
while it was on migration.
Southward migrations begin in
mid-September and by mid-October
they are well on their way to
Columbia and Peru. 
September 2018 | Cooperative Living | 25
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Cooperative Living September 2018

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