Hispaniolan Lizard-Cuckoo

The Hispaniolan lizard cuckoo is 41 to 46 cm (16 to 18 in) long, about half of which is the tail. Males weigh about 83 to 99 g (2.9 to 3.5 oz) and females about 92 to 128 g (3.2 to 4.5 oz). Both subspecies have a long straight bill with a black maxilla and a paler mandible. The sexes within a subspecies have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have entirely gray upperparts. Their wings are chestnut with a rufous patch. Their throat is rufous, the breast pale gray, and the belly rufous. Their tail is black, and the underside of the feathers have large white tips. Their eye is surrounded by bare red skin. Juveniles have brownish gray upperparts, a whitish throat, and a narrower brown tail with buff tips. The subspecies C. l. petersi is paler overall than the nominate, and has a whitish throat.

The nominate subspecies of Hispaniolan lizard cuckoo is found on the main island of Hispaniola and the offshore islands of Tortuga and Saona. C. l. petersi is found only on Gonâve Island off western Haiti. The species inhabits tropical deciduous and evergreen forests, more open woodland, thickets, mountain slopes with bushes, plantations, and gardens. In elevation, it ranges from sea level to 2,200 m (7,200 ft).

The Hispaniolan lizard cuckoo usually forages from the middle to upper levels of the forest, though it also hunts near the ground. It hunts by walking along and among branches. Its diet includes lizards, small snakes, and many types of adult and larval insects. It sometimes joins mixed-species feeding flocks.