Celebrate the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) with us! Our theme in 2022 is “Loving Birds is Human Nature”. 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: Bay-breasted Cuckoo
Imagine a half-meter long, dusky gray bird with reddish-brown breast, throat, and wing patch, peach-colored pantaloons and belly, and thick decurved bill. Got that? Now, add a glossy black tail comprising nearly two thirds the bird’s total length, each feather tipped with a bold white spot. Mother Nature is showing off with the Bay-breasted Cuckoo!
This bird has a loud, distinctive voice: Cu-aa! (its most common local name in the Dominican Republic), sometimes followed by a guttural accelerating u-ak-u-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak. Residents of Gonaïves, Haiti call it Tako Kabrit (“Goat Cuckoo”) because of its goat-like bawl “Greeee!”
Despite all this noise, the Bay-breasted Cuckoo is one of the hardest birds to spot on Hispaniola. It is uncommon, shy and secretive. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch a glimpse of it, agilely hopping and gliding along branches,, hunting for insects, lizards, frogs, small mammals, even bird eggs and nestlings.
The Cúa has a Caribbean cousin, which it closely resembles in morphology and plumage: the Chestnut-bellied Cuckoo, endemic to Jamaica, which is much more common. Both species have a thick, down-curved bill. These large cuckoo species feed on similar prey, with similar foraging behaviors. Once, a Cúa was seen sallying at a lower branch, trying to capture a large, well-camouflaged lizard – which turned out to be a previously undiscovered chameleon-like species of Anolis!
The Cúa is the second most threatened Hispaniolan endemic bird. Its IUCN status is Endangered. Only two main nesting populations persist in the DR’s Sierra de Bahoruco and North slope of Cordillera Central. In the last 12 years, it has been seen in other areas; but these are likely a few survivors, now at risk of extinction due to the continued destruction of mature broadleaf and semi-deciduous middle elevation forests, their preferred habitat. Intensive farming, including avocado plantations, poses a serious threat to this species’ survival. Hunting is another factor putting pressure on the birds; some local people mistakenly believe that eating the bird will cure arthritis and other ailments.
Finally, in a tropical country where commercial ads (paint products, tours) sometimes display non-native birds like macaws and toucans, perhaps unaware that we have our own majestic and colorful birds like the Bay-breasted Cuckoo, it is great to see branding inspired by this spectacular species: Cúa Conservation Agency (audiovisual producers) and La Cúa Birding Tours (from colleague birding guide Iván Mota). Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the Bay-breasted 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 Bay-breasted Cuckoo
The calls of the Bay-breasted Cuckoo are a guttural accelerating, “u-ak-u-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak.” They also make a bleating sound a bit like a lamb or goat.
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 Bay-breasted 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: Did you know that in 2020 Shika Shika released their album “A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America, & the Caribbean” ? The project was a unique fusion of music and birdsong , the ten-track electronic music album, incorporated the songs and calls of endangered birds. Amongst the calls and songs of endemics from the region you can listen out for the sweet songs of our Caribbean birds ! You can still hear the tracks on Shika-Shika’s Bandcamp website. Read all about how Shika Shika managed to raise an amazing $30,000 USD for bird conservation in to our blog post.