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Sunday, October 14, 2018

YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO, COLONEL SAMUEL SMITH PARK,ETOBICOKE,TORONTO,ON, 10/13/2018

          We can ID this cuckoo as a Yellow-billed Cuckoo as follows:
  • Long tail, which is white and black underneath (see first photo) and brown above (see second photo)
  • White underparts
  • Grayish-brown head and upperparts
  • Bill has yellow lower mandible and black upper mandible
  • Rufous wing-patch (see first photo). 

    In southern U.S. rain crow and storm crow are common folk names for the Yellow-billed Cuckoo.  This is because of the bird's habit of calling on hot days, often presaging rain or thunderstorms.  Yellow-billed Cuckoos are among the few bird species able to eat large hairy caterpillars.  In the East they eat large numbers of tent caterpillars -- as many as 100 in one sitting.

    The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is a new species to our Photographic Life List, which now stands at 799A.






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