Cocos Cuckoo

The Cocos cuckoo is 32 to 33 cm (13 to 13 in) long, about half of which is the tail, and weighs about 70 g (2.5 oz). Their bill is stout and somewhat decurved. Its maxilla is black and its mandible yellow to yellow-orange with a black tip. Males and females have the same plumage. Adults' forehead and crown are slate gray and their upperparts grayish brown. Their wings are rufous. The upper surface of their tail is grayish brown and the undersides black with wide white tips. Their face has a narrow blackish "mask" past the eye, which is surrounded by a narrow ring of yellow to orange yellow bare skin. Their throat and breast are buffy white and the belly and undertail coverts rich buff. Juveniles are similar to adults but have less contrast between the head and back colors, a less contrasting facial mask, a whitish throat, chest and belly, and less white on the tail.

The Cocos cuckoo is found only on Cocos Island, which is about 550 km (340 mi) miles off Costa Rica's Pacific coast. It inhabits essentially the entire island, using most of the plant communities on it: flooded bay forest, riparian forest, tropical rainforest, and tropical cloudforest. It is found from sea level the highest points on the island at about 450 m (1,500 ft).

The adult Cocos cuckoo feeds primarily on caterpillars, especially those of the giant sphinx moth (Cocytius antaeus) and the Orion cecropian butterfly (Historis odius). Young are fed crickets and cockroaches. Its foraging technique varies by habitat, including hunting at ground level by short flights, gleaning from understory plants, and probing in Guzmania sanguinea bromeliads on Sacoglottis holdridgei trees. In addition to caterpillars and other arthropods, it also occasionally eats Anolis towsendi, an endemic lizard.