In response to the sighting in Rochester, we have had a black-billed cuckoo pass through the brushy thickets of our and other neighbors’ backyards usually moving in a north to south direction towards a large mixed woody area for the past three days—2 in the morning and last night in the early evening around 7:00.
I was within a few feet of the bird, but could not pick it out from the brush.  We recorded the song and it matches and responds to the black-billed recording on the Audubon App. Last evening, when it was so close, I perceived a second sound coming from a slightly different location and wondered if there were two of them moving along together. According to Julie Zickfoose’s notes and research on the yellow-billed in Baby Birds (2018) in southern Ohio, they typically nest around July 11.  We are in that window of time now. Could there be nesting?  It is very fast:  nest to fledging about 17 days, shortest of any bird in North America. (Her source for these facts is Dr. Janice Hughes, biology professor at Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, and a preeminent authority on North American cuckoos.) Reason for short period is thought to be heavy predation due to twiggy nests, low to the ground.
Linda Kulas
Rutland City

> On Jul 14, 2019, at 9:42 AM, BRUCE FLEWELLING <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Yesterday, and last year on the same date (7/13) I heard a Yellow-billed Cuckoo near my house. They don't pass thru in the spring, nor do they nest in the area. And they don't stay around this time of year either.
> 
> Any idea why they would be passing thru now?
> 
> 
> Bruce Flewelling
> 
> RT. 73, Rochester