The Yellow-billed Cuckoo has been my nemesis bird for a while now. Although it breeds in New York City, and although it is regularly reported in city parks, I have never had an unambiguous look at one. That chyanged this morning. I had joined Steve and Heidi Nanz, Rob Jett, Janet Schumacher, Suzanne Ortiz, and several others for a continuing breeding bird census at Ridgewood Reservoir. This was the third of a planned six visits to the site this season.
We parked the cars across Vermont Place from the reservoir. A pair of male Baltimore Orioles were obvious in a nearby tree. However the census doesn’t start till we cross the street. No sooner had we done so, than Rob called out “Yellow-billed Cuckoo!” It was high up in the trees, and moving; but it didn’t fly too far away; and eventually I was able to get a clear look at it. I
I’m afraid this is the best picture of the bird I got, and you really can’t identify it from this:
It did not pose for photographs, I’m afraid. I have several other photos of the branch it just left, but it was clearly ID’able through binoculars. It was obviously a cuckoo, had a prominent slightly curved yellow bill, and large white spots on the underside of the tail. The Black-billed Cuckoo, the only other cuckoo in the area, has a black bill and small white spots on the underside of the tail.
We spent another four+ hours at the site after that, counting birds and looking for evidence of breeding. We found Baltimore Orioles building nests, and some American Robin nests. However, we also saw a lot of warblers that are likely just passing through. (They’re really only two or three species of warbler that breed in New York City: Yellow, Common Yellowthroat, and perhaps American Redstart.)
This isn’t a complete list, but other birds we counted today included:
Mallard
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Willow Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
House Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
American Robin
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Common Yellowthroat
Canada Warbler
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
Here’s the Bay-breasted Warbler, which was somewhat more cooperative than the cuckoo:
We’ll be back in a couple of weeks to see who’s still around.
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