Great lizard cuckoo

Great lizard cuckoo
File:Great lizard-cuckoo (Saurothera merlini santamariae).JPG
S. m. santamariae Cayo Coco, Cuba
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Cuculiformes
Family:	Cuculidae
Genus:	Coccyzus
Species:	C. merlini
Binomial name
Coccyzus merlini D'Orbigny, 1839
Synonyms
Saurothera merlini

The great lizard cuckoo (Coccyzus merlini) is a species of cuckoo in the Cuculidae family. The species is also known as the Cuban lizard cuckoo. It is found in The Bahamas (on Andros, Eleuthera and New Providence) and Cuba.

Description

The great lizard cuckoo is the largest of the lizard-cuckoos of the Caribbean and the largest species of Coccyzus cuckoo. It is 54 cm (21 in) in length and weighs around 155 g (5.5 oz). The plumage is similar to that of the other lizard-cuckoos: olive-brown backs, wings and crown, white throat and breast and chestnut belly with a deeply barred undertail. The eye has a patch of bare red skin around it, and the bill is long.

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  Back view

• Great lizard-cuckoo (Saurothera merlini merlini) Cu.JPG

  S. m. merlini, Zapata National Park, Cuba

This species feeds on lizards and insects such as locusts. Unlike some cuckoos, it raises its own young, nesting in a saucer of twigs and laying two to three eggs.

Habitat

Its natural habitats are tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, lowland and montane tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, and heavily degraded former forest.

External links

• BirdLife species factsheet for Coccyzus merlini
• Coccyzus merlini on Avibase
• Cuban lizard cuckoo videos, photos, and sounds at the Internet Bird Collection
• Great lizard-cuckoo photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University)
• Great lizard-cuckoo species account at NeotropicalBirds (Cornell University)

• Interactive range map of Coccyzus merlini at IUCN Red List maps
• Audio recordings of Great lizard cuckoo on Xeno-canto.