Celebrate the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) with us! Our theme in 2021 is “Sing, Fly, Soar—Like a Bird!” Have fun learning about a new endemic bird every day. We have colouring pages, puzzles, activities, and more. Download for free and enjoy nature with your family at home.
Endemic Bird of the Day: Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo
With its long, lanky tail and slightly decurved bill, the Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo is unique among Puerto Rican birds. It can be distinguished from other cuckoos found on the island by its gray throat and breast, chestnut underbelly and scarlet eye-rings. It has a very long and broad dark tail with prominent white spots underneath. This tail, 38 to 40.5 cm long, makes up more than half of this bird’s total body length! Males and females are similar in appearance. Juvenile lizard-cuckoos are similar to the adult but with a cinnamon coloured breast, shorter brown bill, and less extensive orange-red eye-ring.
Puerto Rican Lizard Cuckoos are solitary birds and are more often seen than heard. They have a loud distinctive call consisting of a series of crescendoing “ka-ka-ka-ka” notes. This has earned it the local name of pájaro bobo mayor (“big ape bird”) since it resembles the calls of a monkey. Another local name is pájaro de lluvia or pájaro de agua (“rain bird”), because its call is believed to forecast the rain.
Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoos are found across the island, inhabiting woodlands, coffee plantations; thick, brush-covered limestone hills; and montane, dry coastal, and swampy forests. In the understory and canopy it climbs up trees and branches looking for its prey. True to its name, it feeds mostly on tree lizards (Anolis spp), but it also eats lizard eggs, large spiders, stick insects, caterpillars, centipedes, beetles, and small frogs. It moves slowly and quietly while feeding, using stealth to hunt. Once its next meal is spotted it keeps its body still while it twists its neck at an angle to strike.
Nests are a loose construction of plants and leaves in trees or thick vegetation. Clutch size is usually two to three white eggs. Both male and female incubate the eggs and feed the chicks.
The population of the Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo appears to be stable and the species is listed as Least Concern. However, we know very little about its breeding behaviour and nesting success. Research on this species is needed. Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo
Download our West Indies Endemic Bird colouring page. Use the photos below as your guide, or you can look up pictures of the bird online or in a bird field guide if you have one. Share your coloured-in page with us by posting it online and tagging us @BirdsCaribbean #CEBFfromthenest
Listen to the calls of the Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo
The call of the Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo is rapid “Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka. . .” that speeds up and gets louder.
Puzzle of the Day
Click on the image below to do the puzzle. You can make the puzzle as easy or as hard as you like – for example, 6, 8, or 12 pieces for young children, all the way up to 1,024 pieces for those that are up for a challenge!
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS: Get active with your family and friends with our fun chick feeding game! We want you to imagine you are a busy Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo with a hungry brood of chicks to feed! It will take some speed and dexterity to help provide food for your baby birds. Download the instructions here.
We would love to see photos and/or videos of you and your family playing the game. You may email them to Aliya.Hosein@birdscaribbean.org
Please note that by submitting your photos and/or video you give BirdsCaribbean consent to use your photos and/or videos on our website and social media accounts.
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: Enjoy these amazing videos of Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoos with food! In the first you can see a Lizard-Cuckoo living up to its name, holding a lizard it has caught- you can also hear this bird calling. Watch the second and maybe get some tips for playing our game! It shows an adult Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo feeding a hungry chick at the nest.