Black-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus erythropthalmus)

• HABITAT – Black-billed cuckoos prefer open woodlands with clearings and a dense shrub layer. They are more frequent in larger and denser forests than the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. In winter, they migrate to South America, primarily in the Amazon Basin.
• DIET – They mainly eat large insects such as caterpillars, katydids, cicadas, grasshoppers, and crickets. They occasionally consume bird eggs, snails, small vertebrates (frogs, lizards), fruits, and seeds. Chicks are fed regurgitated insects.
• FACTS – One of the few birds that can digest hairy caterpillars like tent caterpillars and gypsy moth larvae.
• - They are very secretive and tend to stay hidden in foliage, often heard before seen.