The bay-breasted cuckoo (''Coccyzus rufigularis'') is an

Endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the tribe Phaenicophaeini, subfamily Cuculinae of the cuckoo family

Cuculidae Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae ( ) family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes ( ). The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals, and anis. The coucals and anis are someti ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

on the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

island of

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...

; it is possibly

extirpated Local extinction, also extirpation, is the termination of a species (or other taxon) in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinctions. Local extinctions mark a chan ...

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 6. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v6_Dec21.zip retrieved August 7, 2022

Taxonomy and systematics

The bay-breasted cuckoo was at one time placed in the genus ''Piaya'' which was later merged into ''Hyetornis''. That genus was then merged into the current ''Coccyzus''. The species is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

. It is locally known as "cúa" in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

and "tako kabrit" in

Haitian Creole Haitian Creole (; , ; , ), or simply Creole (), is a French-based creole languages, French-based creole language spoken by 10 to 12million people worldwide, and is one of the two official languages of Haiti (the other being French), where it ...

.Payne, R. B. and E. de Juana (2020). Bay-breasted Cuckoo (''Coccyzus rufigularis''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.babcuc4.01 retrieved September 26, 2022

Description

The bay-breasted cuckoo is long, about half of which is the tail. One male specimen weighed . The species' bill is stout and decurved, with a black

maxilla In vertebrates, the maxilla (: maxillae ) is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The two maxil ...

and a yellow

mandible In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone i ...

. Males and females have the same plumage. Adults have gray upperparts with chestnut on the wing's

primaries Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pri ...

, a gray face, a dark chestnut chin and breast, a pale rufous belly, and gray undertail

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are small feathers behind t ...

. Their tail is black with large white tips. Juveniles apparently differ from adults only in having narrower tail feathers.

Distribution and habitat

The bay-breasted cuckoo historically ranged widely in both the Dominican Republic and Haiti. As of 2020, it had possibly been

from mainland Haiti and definitely from

Gonâve Island Gonâve Island or Zile Lagonav (, ; also ''La Gonâve'') is an island of Haiti located west-northwest of Port-au-Prince in the Gulf of Gonâve. It is the largest of the Hispaniolan satellite islands. The island is an arrondissement (''Arrondis ...

, and was known to nest in only two areas of the Dominican Republic. One is on the northern slope of

Sierra de Bahoruco The Bahoruco Mountain Range—Sierra de Bahoruco (or Sierra de Bahoruco) is a mountain range located in the far southwestern region of the Dominican Republic. It is within Pedernales, Independencia, Barahona, and Bahoruco Provinces. A large p ...

Independencia Province Independencia () is a province of the Dominican Republic, located in the west, on the border with Haiti. Its capital is Jimani. The province was created in 1948 but was made official in 1950. Before its creation, it was part of the Baoruco Prov ...

where it is present in two protected areas. The other is in Nalga de Maco National Park on the lower southern slope of the

Cordillera Central Central Cordillera refers to the New Guinea Highlands. Cordillera Central, meaning ''central range'' in Spanish, may refer to the following mountain ranges: * Cordillera Central, Andes (disambiguation), several mountain ranges in South America ** ...

. Local reports, sight records, and photographs from other sites since 2005 hint that the species is present outside those two areas, and "it is likely that small breeding populations remain at these sites." The bay-breasted cuckoo inhabits lowlands and foothills up to at least . It is found in several forest types, but mostly in the narrow transition zone between dry and moist areas.

Behavior

Movement

The bay-breasted cuckoo is not migratory.

Feeding

The bay-breasted cuckoo has a varied diet that includes adult insects, caterpillars, grubs, lizards, and mice. Young birds are mostly fed cicadas. It forages mostly from the forest mid-story to the canopy, leaping between branches.

Breeding

The bay-breasted cuckoo's breeding

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples include the date of emergence of leav ...

is almost unknown. Its breeding season is from February to the beginning of the wet season in June. It builds a loose platform nest of twigs in a tree. It usually places the nest above the ground and hidden in dense foliage or a

bromeliad The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a Family (biology), family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the Tropics, tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and on ...

. The clutch size is two or three eggs.

Vocalization

The bay-breasted cuckoo's most distinctive vocalization is "a forceful ''cua'', often followed by accelerating ''u-ak-u-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak ak-ak''." The first note gives the species its

onomatopoeic Onomatopoeia (or rarely echoism) is a type of word, or the process of creating a word, that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Common onomatopoeias in English include animal noises such as ''oink'', '' ...

local Dominican Republic name. It also "bleats like a lamb" and makes a " ttural crow-like call, described as 'ú-wack-ú-wack-ú-wack-'."

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has assessed the bay-breasted cuckoo as Endangered. Its population has dramatically declined since 1900 to the 2020 estimate of 300 to 2900 mature individuals, and the decrease is believed to be continuing. It is found in four protected areas, but is rare in all of them. The shrinking of its range and population are attributed to deforestation for agriculture and charcoal production, degradation of habitat by grazing, subsistence hunting, and possibly agrochemical use. Climate change is expected to alter the areas' moisture regimes and both natural and human-caused fires are believed to be more likely in the future. "A thorough survey of the species is needed throughout its range."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q865409 Coccyzus Endemic birds of the Caribbean Endemic fauna of the Dominican Republic Endemic birds of Hispaniola Birds of the Dominican Republic Birds described in 1852 Taxa named by Gustav Hartlaub