Black-billed Cuckoos have been very scarce throughout Long Island for several years in a row, so it's easy to forget that they were not always so. Furthermore, they were once the expected breeding species on the outer beach, as counter-intuitive as that might seem, given their generally more northerly distribution than Yellow-billed. This intriguing pattern was described by John Bull in his 1964 book, and my own experience over the years has been mostly consistent with his conclusion. For instance, I can't ever recall seeing a Yellow-billed Cuckoo on Fire Island during June or July, whereas Black-billed at least formerly bred out there. Your bird could have a been a late migrant, too, as Chris T-H was picking up nocturnal flight calls of BB Cuckoo over central NYS, through the first week of June at least.
Shai Mitra Bay Shore ________________________________ From: Brendan Fogarty [[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2013 8:25 PM To: NYSBirds listserve Subject: [nysbirds-l] Arctic Tern, Pomarine Jaeger - Nickerson Beach (Nassau Co.) 6/11 >First sighting was a cuckoo flying across the Loop Parkway around 7 AM. Field >marks suggested Black-billed, but I feel like they would be less likely at >this time of year. Perhaps a late migrant? ________________________________ Washington Monthly<http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septemberoctober_2012/features/americas_bestbangforthebuck_co039461.php> magazine ranks the College of Staten Island as one of "America's Best-Bang-for-the-Buck Colleges" -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
