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 and inv ...

of bird in the tribe Phaenicophaeini, subfamily Cuculinae of the cuckoo family Cuculidae. It is endemic to the Dominican Republic on the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

island of

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...

; it is possibly extirpated in

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

.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. It is locally known as "cúa" in Spanish and "tako kabrit" in

Haitian Creole Haitian Creole (; ht, kreyòl ayisyen, links=no, ; french: créole haïtien, links=no, ), commonly referred to as simply ''Creole'', or ''Kreyòl'' in the Creole language, is a French-based creole language spoken by 10–12million people wor ...

.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 and a yellow mandible. Males and females have the same plumage. Adults have gray upperparts with chestnut on the wing's primaries, a gray face, a dark chestnut chin and breast, a pale rufous belly, and gray undertail coverts. 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 extirpated from mainland Haiti and definitely from Gonâve Island, 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 part ...

in Independencia Province 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 Dry or dryness most often refers to: * Lack of rainfall, which may refer to ** Arid regions ** Drought * Dry or dry area, relating to legal prohibition of selling, serving, or imbibing alcoholic beverages * Dry humor, deadpan * Dryness (medica ...

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 seasonality, seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as environmental factor, habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples includ ...

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 of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, ...

. 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 is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...

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; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

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 Hispaniola Birds of the Dominican Republic Birds described in 1852 Taxa named by Gustav Hartlaub