Great lizard cuckoo

Great lizard cuckoo
S. m. santamariae Cayo Coco, Cuba
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Cuculiformes
Family:	Cuculidae
Genus:	Coccyzus
Species:	C. merlini
Binomial name
Coccyzus merlini D'Orbigny, 1839
Synonyms
Saurothera merlini

The great lizard cuckoo (Coccyzus merlini) is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. The species is also known as the Cuban lizard cuckoo. It is found in The Bahamas (on Andros, Eleuthera and New Providence) and Cuba.

Description

The great lizard cuckoo is the largest of the lizard-cuckoos of the Caribbean and the largest species of Coccyzus cuckoo. It is 54 cm (21 in) in length and weighs around 155 g (5.5 oz). The plumage is similar to that of the other lizard-cuckoos: olive-brown backs, wings and crown, white throat and breast and chestnut belly with a deeply barred undertail. The eye has a patch of bare red skin around it, and the bill is long.

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  Back view
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  S. m. merlini, Zapata National Park, Cuba

This species feeds on lizards and insects such as locusts. Unlike some cuckoos, it raises its own young, nesting in a saucer of twigs and laying two to three eggs.

Habitat

Its natural habitats are tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, lowland and montane tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, and heavily degraded former forest.

References

• Payne, R.B. (1997). del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J. (eds.). Family Cuculidae (Cuckoos). Vol. Volume 4: Sandgrouse to Cuckoos. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 84-87334-22-9. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help); |work= ignored (help)
• Raffaele, Herbert; Wiley, James; Garrido, Orlando; Keith, Allan; Raffaele, Janis (2003). Birds of the West Indies. London: Christopher Helm. ISBN 978-0713654196.

External links

• BirdLife species factsheet for Coccyzus merlini
• "Coccyzus merlini". Avibase.
• "Cuban lizard cuckoo media". Internet Bird Collection.
• Great lizard-cuckoo photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University)
• Great lizard-cuckoo species account at Neotropical Birds (Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
• Interactive range map of Coccyzus merlini at IUCN Red List maps
• Audio recordings of Great lizard cuckoo on Xeno-canto.