Great lizard cuckoo
| Great lizard cuckoo | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| In Pinar del Rio Province, Cuba | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Cuculiformes |
| Family: | Cuculidae |
| Genus: | Coccyzus |
| Species: | C. merlini |
| Binomial name | |
| Coccyzus merlini D'Orbigny, 1839 | |
| Synonyms | |
|
Saurothera merlini | |
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The great lizard cuckoo (Coccyzus merlini) is a species of cuckoo in the Cuculidae family. The species is also known as the Cuban lizard cuckoo. It is found in The Bahamas (on Andros, Eleuthera and New Providence) and Cuba.
The great lizard cuckoo is the largest of the lizard-cuckoos of the Caribbean and the largest species of Coccyzus cuckoo. It is 54 cm (21 in) in length and weighs around 155 g (5.5 oz). The plumage is similar to that of the other lizard-cuckoos: olive-brown backs, wings and crown, white throat and breast and chestnut belly with a deeply barred undertail. The eye has a patch of bare red skin around it, and the bill is long.
This species feeds on lizards and insects such as locusts. Unlike some cuckoos, it raises its own young, nesting in a saucer of twigs and laying two to three eggs.
Its natural habitats are tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, lowland and montane tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, and heavily degraded former forest.
References
- ↑ BirdLife International (2014). "Coccyzus merlini". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 23 October 2014.
- Payne, R.B. (1997). del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J., eds. Family Cuculidae (Cuckoos). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 4: Sandgrouse to Cuckoos (Barcelona: Lynx Edicions). ISBN 84-87334-22-9.
- Raffaele, Herbert; Wiley, James; Garrido, Orlando; Keith, Allan; Raffaele, Janis (2003). Birds of the West Indies. London: Christopher Helm. ISBN 978-0713654196.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Coccyzus merlini. |
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Wikispecies has information related to: Coccyzus merlini |
- BirdLife species factsheet for Coccyzus merlini
- Coccyzus merlini on Avibase
- Cuban lizard cuckoo videos, photos, and sounds at the Internet Bird Collection
- Great lizard-cuckoo photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University)
- Great lizard-cuckoo species account at NeotropicalBirds (Cornell University)
- Interactive range map of Coccyzus merlini at IUCN Red List maps
- Audio recordings of Great lizard cuckoo on Xeno-canto.