Day 86: Mangrove Cuckoo

The Mangrove Cuckoo is one of my favorite birds that we saw during our trip. They are fairly large birds with tan underparts, a black mask, and a long black tail with white spots. We saw several on our trip, but one especially close was snacking on some bugs in a tree.

Mangrove Cuckoos have a really interesting guttural call that we learned to identify pretty quickly while hiking around.

Another cuckoo that I really wanted to see is the Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo, which is endemic to the island. Unfortunately, I heard them call several times, but never got the opportunity to see or photograph one. We went hunting for one on a hot, sunny afternoon, and finally found one close to the trail at the very end of a long hike. It responded really well when Jared played its call on his phone, so we were able to sneak closer and closer. Jared actually caught a glimpse of it, but I got too excited and scared it off when I rushed over to see it. Major bummer.