It is not every day that a Yellow-billed Cuckoo decides to cooperate and sit out in the open for pictures. In fact, the vast majority of birding days go by without Coccyzus americanus making any kind of appearance at all. So you can imagine my pleasure, then, when I spotted one skulking in some thick brush last week when I was exploring the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the first time last week. I got my digiscoping rig set up and waited. And waited. And waited. The bird moved through the brush and I occasionally tried to get a shot of it that wasn’t too obscured but rarely succeeded. Then the bird flew to the back side and I had a clear shot at its head through a window in the undergrowth. I thought that was cool but then the bird flew down to a tangle of vegetation on the ground and just sat there. In the open. For nearly a full minute. Now that is how you want to see a Yellow-billed Cuckoo!
Later, on a second walk around the refuge with Jeff Gordon the bird put in another appearance at even closer range. We watched it forage amid another tangle and grab a big caterpillar and choke it down. I got very angry at myself for having put my digiscoping rig away in the car after the first loop around but, really, does it matter? I mean, look at the shots I got earlier…
With Jeff and without my digiscoping rig, this is the best shot I got:
Always keep your digiscoping rig with you because you never know when a cuckoo will be cooperative!
This post has been submitted to Bird Photography Weekly #166. Go check it out!
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Wow, awesome shots!
A Yellow-Billed Cuckoo was my 300th life bird. During the drought this past summer, one of them came to the water in my back yard several times. http://thainamu.blogspot.com/2011/07/yellow-billed-cuckoo.html
Or, never leave your camera in the car. Which is what I did a couple of Sundays ago, thus missing a once in a lifetime opportunity to photograph a Yellow-billed Cuckoo out in the open for 10 minutes at Prospect Park’s Breezy Hill. (Of course, if I had my camera, it would have stayed behind 20 leaves and a thick branch.)
I can see the digi-scope does give you some amazing images. You got lots of detail. I like it yellow eye ring.