Coccyzus
Black-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus erythropthalmus)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Cuculiformes
Family: Cuculidae
Genus: Coccyzus
Vieillot, 1816
Type species
Cuculus americanus (yellow-billed cuckoo)
Linnaeus, 1758
Species

13, see text

Synonyms

Hyetornis
Saurothera

Coccyzus is a genus of cuckoos which occur in the Americas. The genus name is from Ancient Greek kokkuzo, which means to call like a common cuckoo. The genus includes the lizard cuckoos that were formerly included in the genus Saurothera.

Taxonomy

The genus Coccyzus was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot to accommodate a single species, Comte de Buffon's "Coucou de la Caroline", now the yellow-billed cuckoo. This which is therefore the type species.[1][2] The genus name is from the Ancient Greek kokkuzō meaning "to cry cuckoo".[3]

The results of a molecular phylogenetic study of the cuckoo family by Michael Sorenson and Robert Payne that was published in 2005 lead to a reorganization of some of the genera. Based on this study, the genera Saurothera (the lizard cuckoos) and Hyetornis (chestnut-bellied and bay-breasted cuckoos) were lumped with Coccyzus while the ash-colored cuckoo and dwarf cuckoo, at one time separated in Micrococcyx, were found to be closest relatives of the little cuckoo, formerly in Piaya. These three species were placed in the resurrected genus Coccycua.[4][5]

Species

The genus contains 13 species:[6]

ImageCommon NameScientific nameDistribution
Black-billed cuckooCoccyzus erythropthalmusEastern North America, the Caribbean, Central America, and the Andes
Yellow-billed cuckooCoccyzus americanusEastern United States, Central America, and eastern South America
Pearly-breasted cuckooCoccyzus euleriArgentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Suriname, Peru, and Venezuela
Mangrove cuckooCoccyzus minorsouthern Florida in the United States, the Bahamas, the Caribbean, both coasts of Mexico and Central America, and the Atlantic coast of South America as far south as the mouth of the Amazon River.
Cocos cuckooCoccyzus ferrugineusCosta Rica
Dark-billed cuckooCoccyzus melacoryphusArgentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela
Grey-capped cuckooCoccyzus lansbergiAruba, Colombia, Ecuador, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.
Chestnut-bellied cuckooCoccyzus pluvialisJamaica
Bay-breasted cuckooCoccyzus rufigularisDominican Republic
Great lizard cuckooCoccyzus merliniThe Bahamas (on Andros, Eleuthera and New Providence) and Cuba
Puerto Rican lizard cuckooCoccyzus vieillotiPuerto Rico
Jamaican lizard cuckooCoccyzus vetulaJamaica
Hispaniolan lizard cuckooCoccyzus longirostrisHispaniola (both Haiti and the Dominican Republic)

Description and ecology

These birds are of variable size with slender bodies, long tails and strong legs. Many have black and white undertail patterns. They occur in a variety of forests, woodlands or mangroves.

Coccyzus cuckoos, unlike many Old World species, build their own nests in trees and lay two or more eggs. Yellow-billed and black-billed cuckoos occasionally lay eggs in the nests of other birds, but are not obligate brood parasites like the common cuckoo of Eurasia.

Northern species such as yellow-billed and black-billed cuckoos are strong migrants, wintering in Central or South America, and occasionally wander to western Europe as rare vagrants, but the tropical Coccyzus cuckoos are mainly sedentary.

These are vocal species when breeding, with persistent and loud calls. They feed on large insects such as cicadas, wasps and caterpillars (including those with stinging hairs or spines which are distasteful to many birds). Lizard cuckoos are large and powerful species, and mainly take vertebrate prey, especially, as the name implies, lizards.

References

  1. ↑ Vieillot, Louis Pierre (1816). Analyse d'une Nouvelle Ornithologie Élémentaire (in French). Paris: Deterville/self. p. 28.
  2. ↑ Peters, James Lee, ed. (1940). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 4. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 41.
  3. ↑ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  4. ↑ Sorenson, M.D.; Payne, R.B. (2005). "A molecular genetic analysis of cuckoo phylogeny". In Payne, R.B. (ed.). The Cuckoos. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 68–94. ISBN 0-19-850213-3.
  5. ↑ Banks, R.C.; Cicero, C.; Dunn, J.L.; Kratter, A.W.; Rasmussen, P.C.; Remsen, J.V.; Rising, J.D.; Stotz, D.F. (2006). "Forty-Seventh Supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-List of North American Birds". The Auk. 123 (3): 926–936. doi:10.1093/auk/123.3.926.
  6. ↑ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (January 2022). "Turacos, bustards, cuckoos, mesites, sandgrouse". IOC World Bird List Version 12.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
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