Yellow-billed Cuckoo Surveys and Telemetry: June 16th and 17th

One June 16th, Alex and I headed out with Shannon again to survey a site near Cibola National Wildlife Refuge that contains large eucalyptus and cottonwood trees. It is a small stand of trees in an otherwise grim-looking mesquite landscape, but the combination of cottonwoods near mesquite seems to be preferred by cuckoos over cottonwoods alone, or, cottonwoods surrounded by tamarisk. Early on in the survey, we detected one cuckoo, in an area where a cuckoo spent much time last year. Unfortunately many cuckoos are unbanded, as this is a fairly new project, and cuckoos are fairly hard to catch. Even when cuckoos are banded, their color bands are hard to read, as cuckoos usually sit low on their legs. Site fidelity is another topic of research that SSRS hopes to learn more about in time through color banding, radio-telemetry, and geolocator deployment. This particular cuckoo left before we got a chance to see it, but it may have just flew east into another nearby restoration plot.

Later in the morning, we deployed a few more I-buttons in areas where cuckoos nested last year. Diane’s crew had a cuckoo on their survey earlier in the day, so while we hung an I-button in this area, we played a broadcast call, and a cuckoo immediately flew in to investigate. It sat less than 15 meters away from us, and watched us inquisitively as we worked. It was an unbanded bird, and a perfect candidate for capture since it was so responsive to our call. Before leaving, Alex spotted the bird of the day; a juvenile Zone-tailed Hawk, rare in this area but likely just roaming around as a juvenile looking for a territory. It was a first record for the county. 

Back at the house, we haven't been getting many birds at the feeders, except for these Eurasian Collared Doves.

On June 17th, Alex and I headed to another area of the Cibola Valley Conservation Restoration plots to do the first survey of the season for the site. Unfortunately we didn’t detect birds anywhere, including the nesting areas that birds in 2009 used. While we were doing a survey here, Shannon, Diane, and the other two technicians (Lindsey and Tim) were at Cibola South trying to capture the responsive cuckoo from the previous day. They were successful and were able to band the bird and also put a tail-mounted radio-transmitter on it. The bird was named Whimper Featherfoot, for its continual whimpering noises in the hand and its exceptionally long tarsal feathers.

Alex and I tracked WFF that evening. It made a few small movements around a central location, then moved a short distance west and roosted in thick mesquite. It was impossible to attempt a visual of the roosting bird, so trails will need to be cut for eventual nest searching and roost checking. Unfortunately the area it really seems to like is very thick, and if it nests, it will likely nest in this favorite area. Tim and Lindsey heard another bird in the area during the day, so it is likely that WFF is in the process of choosing a mate. In the hand, you cannot tell a male from a female cuckoo. This bird was one of the largest ever caught, which indicates it may be a female. However, the original guess was that WFF is male, as it responded to coo (sounds like the first note of the coo of a dove) calls; Coo calls are thought to be most often (90% of the time) given by females. More evidence that WFF is a female, though, is that it was coo-ing during the day while it was being radio-tracked. Blood samples are taken while the cuckoos are banded, though, for a positive sexing at a later date.

A small irrigation canal runs through the territory of WFF, which attracts a lot of wildfowl in the evening.  At dusk, coyotes and rabbits come to drink, and many nighthawks come out to catch bugs over the water.

Lesser Nighthawks foraging

On our way home, we found this small rattlesnake in the road.  Small rattlesnakes are acutally more poisonous than large ones, so we stayed in the car for photos!  We also saw many wild burrows on the way home in the dark near Cibola National Wildlife Refuge.

rattlesnake