I haven't often either viewed a Yellow-billed Cuckoo up close or taken photos that provide the close-up views as I did with the bird I found yesterday in Van's Grove. I have seen in Sibley's and National Geographic (6th ed) that they have a yellow orbital ring and show drawings of both adult and juvenile birds with yellow orbital rings. When I cropped my photos to enlarge them it was clear that the bird I found did not have a yellow orbital ring-it was grayish. So I did some reading and now am confused.
*Birds of North America* online states, "Orbital skin pale yellow in nestling; grayish in adult." McGill Bird Observatory (has banding photos) states, "A quick and reliable way to determine age in Yellow-billed Cuckoos is by the orbital ring, which is yellow in HY/SY birds (until late winter or spring) and grayish in older individuals." So, I wonder if anyone here has expertise with these cuckoos to address this apparent contradiction? I say apparent as a possibility is that both Sibley as well as Jon Dunn and Jonathan Alderfer ignored the yellow coloration on the orbital rings of the drawings of juvenile birds in their respective field guides (??). BTW, this cuckoo spontanously gave a partial 'coo' song/call but just 'coo, coo.' (as two coos in the first and third recording here<http://birds.audubon.org/birds/yellow-billed-cuckoo>) It took me 15-20 minutes to locate it visually after that and since there was a Northern Mockingbird present I did start questioning if it could have given an imitated call. I didn't find any prior sighting recorded for this species at Van's Grove though they have been seen in the area before Other birds in Van's Grove yesterday included a male Common Yellowthroat (there is a wetland area several hundred yards away but it was in the very dry woodlands in Van's Grove the entire time I was there), a male Eastern Bluebird (on the edge of the woodlands), the N Mockingbird, 2 Blue Grosbeak, at least 2 Orchard Orioles, and 2 W Wood-Pewees. I stopped briefly at Van's Grove over the week-end in the afternoon but no Eastern Bluebird, C Yellowthroat or cuckoo found then. I also drove over to Tempel Grove over the weekend and yesterday-- though there was water in the canal bird activity was minimal except for Western Kingbirds and doves that are abundant. I did find a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak, one Warbling Vireo, a Yellow Warbler yesterday and one Eastern Phoebe over the week-end. I have added a more heavily cropped photo of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo to my Birds and Nature blog that clearly shows the grayish orbital ring on the bird I found at Van's Grove. SeEtta Moss Canon City Personal blog @ http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com Blogging for Birds an Blooms Magazine @ http://BirdsAndBloomsBlog.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAAUvckqcHcf%3DFonj7-TcWiD0VrS%3DbBu6ya4zxgs-J73RKLDGXA%40mail.gmail.com?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
