MAY 2023 - Rouge National Urban Park, sighting of the month - Black-billed Cuckoo

May brought with it a flourish of bird activity in the Rouge National Urban Park. Birds were busy building nests and at the same time fattening up on emerging insects. Birders were out looking and listening for Spring Warblers. In the park 15 different species of Warblers were observed this month. Among them, Canada, Mourning, Blackburnian and Chestnut-sided Warblers. As usual the Yellow Warbler was the most frequently observed.

May Warbler numbers:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?d1=2023-05-01&d2=2023-05-31&place_id=any&project_id=rouge-national-urban-park-birds&taxon_id=71349&verifiable=any&view=species

But this months sighting is not of a Warbler but of the secretive Cuckoo. In Ontario we have 2 different species of breeding Cuckoos, the Black-billed and the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Woodland edges and thickets are their preferred habitat. Here they hop about small trees and shrubs looking for caterpillars (often tent caterpillars) and grasshoppers which is the main staple of their diet. Spongy moths which we have plenty of in the park are also thought to make up a portion of their food supply.
If you’re wondering why they are called Cuckoo birds it is from the sound they call out. But it is the Common Cuckoo found in Europe that makes the namesake “cuckoo -cuckoo” sound. All other species in the Cuckoo family including the Black-billed Cuckoo have different but loud vocal calls.

This months sighting by @kalvinchan . A Black-billed Cuckoo with bright red eye-ring and long tail perches in a Black-walnut tree.
Click on photo to see full observation details including when and where in the park this Cuckoo was seen.

Coccyzus erythropthalmus , photo credit @kalvinchan

由使用者 pinemartyn 在 2023年06月03日 17:48 所貼文