I had the great pleasure of stumbling on a small group of people that were watching this Yellow-billed Cuckoo as it rested and foraged along the edge of the North Pool on the Parker River NWR.
A brief video showing just how much work goes into eating a caterpillar which is a large part of the Cuckoos diet.
There's no mistaking how this bird acquired it's name. This is one of the brighter Cuckoos I've seen.
The Caterpillar loses it's bristles before the Cuckoo tosses it down the hatch.
Another bug the Cuckoo quickly found and ate.
and lastly a close up of the bill and that very yellow eye-ring.
Great images of a very handsome-looking bird Phil!
ReplyDeleteThanks Richard, great fun spending time with it!
ReplyDeletePhil, I linked to this post in "This Week's Best in Bird Blogging". Nice work! Looking forward to following your every post.
ReplyDeleteSome of the best photos yet I have seen of this bird. Well done!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for posting this. I live in north Florida and a few minutes ago we had a visit of one exactly like this. I love birds but did not know what kind this beauty was. Your photographs confirmed my research. After listening to their songs on Audubon's website and with a little more research, it looks like we have a lot of these around here (I hear their calls and songs all the time and it reminds me of being in a south American jungle somewhere... not that I have ever been). Thank you again, beautiful photos!
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