Cuckoos - Tent Caterpillar Birds
4/19/20262 min
The Yellow-billed Cuckoo, one of two species of cuckoos in North America, lives in broadleaf forests throughout the East and riparian stands in the Southwest. Cuckoos were common breeding birds in the Pacific Northwest as late as the 1920s, but then they disappeared. The Black-billed Cuckoo is a more northerly species that lives in dense woodland, even conifer forests. Cuckoos perch quietly and scan their surroundings for food. Hairy tent caterpillars, shunned by most birds, are often on their meal ticket.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMary McCann0:01
This is BirdNote. [bird sounds] This staccato call tells us there's a yellow-billed cuckoo nearby. One of two species of cuckoos in the woodlands of North America, the yellow-billed lives in broadleaf forests throughout the East and riparian stands in the Southwest. They were common breeding birds in the Pacific Northwest as late as the 1920s, but then they disappeared. Ornithologists still don't know why. The black-billed cuckoo is a more northerly species, living in dense woodland, even conifer forests. [bird sounds] Cuckoos perch quietly and scan their surroundings for food. Hairy tent caterpillars, shunned by most birds, are often on their meal ticket. So, if you have an infestation of tent caterpillars, you might see one of these slender brown and white birds with long white-spotted tails. [bird sounds] The cuckoo plucks a caterpillar from its tent and manipulates it back and forth in its bill, taking off many of the bothersome hairs. But some of them remain, and cuckoo stomachs are sometimes lined with these hairs. When the hairs are dense enough to prevent digestion, the entire stomach lining is cast off and regurgitated. Nature finds