Subject: Re: "California" Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Date: Dec 15 11:33:41 1997
From: "Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney" - festuca at olywa.net


Eugene Hunn wrote:

" Stanley Jewett et al. in their Birds of Washington State (U. W. Press,
Seattle, 1953) describe the Yellow-billed Cuckoo as "Rare summer resident
from May 3 to September 27 in the humid Transition Zone of western
Washington; one mid-August record from east of the Cascade Mountains."
....They attribute the western Washington population to the race Coccyzus americanus
occidentalis, the "California Cuckoo." Are these the same as the ones in Arizona? "

Hi folks,

Yes, the Rain Crow in the Northwest is considered the same subspecies (Coccyzus americanus
occidentalis) as the ones in Aridzona. The "Yellow-billed Cuckoo", C.a. americanus, is the
breeding bird of the East. The 1957 A.O.U. Check-list lists C.a. americanus as breeding from
"North Dakota, Minnesota, southern Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick south to eastern
Colorado, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Louisiana, the Florida Keys, Bahama Islands (probably),
Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and the northern Lesser Antilles
(probably)."

This same Check-list lists C.a. occidentalis as Breeding "from southwestern British Columbia
(Pitt Meadows, Victoria), western Washington, northern Utah, central Colorado, and western
Texas south to the Cape region of Baja California, and to Sinaloa, and Chihuahua (probably
farther south in the mountains). Winter home probably in South America; migrates through
Mexico, El Salvador, and Costa Rica."

The type specimen of C.a. occidentalis was described by Ridgway, Man. North American Birds,
1887, p. 273, from the "Western United States = Old Fort Crittenden, east base of Santa Rita
Mountains, Arizona."

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net