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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