Coccyzus americanus
Order Cuculiformes
Family Cuculidae
Subfamily Cuculinae
Adult.— Upper parts brown; under parts white; lower mandible yellow, except the tip, which is black; tail long, rounded, the three outer blackish tail-feathers ending in large white spots; a broad area of cinnamon showing in the wings when the bird flies.
Nest, of sticks, loosely constructed, in a low tree or bush, or in a dense mass of vines.
Eggs, pale greenish-blue.
The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is a summer resident of New York and New England, rarely occurring beyond the northern boundary of Massachusetts. It arrives in the first half of May, and occasionally lingers late into September. In the hilly portion of central New England it is rare, occurring in Berkshire County only along the rivers and at the outlets of lakes. In eastern Massachusetts and about New York this and the preceding species are often equally common.
The haunts and habits of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo are similar to those of the [Black-billed Cuckoo]. It slips quietly into the trees and then sits motionless, so that it is more often heard than seen. Its notes have been described under the preceding species.
To distinguish the Yellow-billed Cuckoo from the Black-billed it is necessary to get near enough to see the large white spots on the tips of the blackish tail-feathers, or the yellow under mandible, or to catch, as the bird flies, the cinnamon in the wing.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)