Yellow-billed Cuckoo Capture, June 24

My first day back at work, I joined Diane, Shannon, and Lindsey on a cuckoo chase.  We set out to find responsive unbanded cuckoos at our sites, in hopes to lure one into our nets.  After checking nearly all of our sites, we found the ideal spot to set up our nets, at a site where we already had two birds out with transmitters.  Other birds were active in the area, and we wanted to figure out what was going on by putting transmitters on more birds.  We quickly set up our mist nets, which are very high, and can be lowered by a pulley system when a bird in captured.  We started our audio lure, playing the contact call of the cuckoo, as we hid ourselves in camoflague netting.  Within seconds, a cuckoo responded, and within 15 minutes, we had at least 3 to 4 cuckoos around the nets, calling and flying in and out from every direction.  We called this a "cuckoo party" which is a rare event at the nets.  Usually, only one or two birds respond and come in.  After about 20 minutes, a cuckoo hit our nets and got caught, and we quickly lowered the nets and got it out.  While Diane and Shannon worked on the bird, Lindsey and I kept the lures going, to try to get another cuckoo.  One flew in to a tree right next to the net, then another joined it, but they couldn't be pursuaded to make the jump into the net.  A few flew over the net or around it, but not at it.  Finally, a cuckoo landed in the tree right above me, as I was playing a call trying to get the two birds on the other side of the net to fly at me.  In a predicament, I couldn't really call anymore, since the cuckoo above me was onto me, and slowly figuring things out (that I was actually a human).  Since the cuckoo was relatively low in the tree, there was a good chance I could scare it into the net, so I got up and clapped my hands.  Amazingly the cuckoo flew right into the top right corner of the net!  After we got it out, we were able to band and put tail-mounted transmitters on both birds, named Yellow Beard (YB) and Grey Brow (GB), for reasons only known by cuckoo researchers.

GB receiving a transmitter, note color bands given to bird

rufous-colored primary feathers of GB

GB (notice the light gray "brow" above the eye)

GB's tail feathers and transmitter antenna

(there is much variation in the size/shape of white spots on tail feathers)

GB

the release of YB