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Black-Billed Cuckoo

    RARA AVIS

    This Week’s Bird Sightings

    By

    Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, July 1 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.

    Sightings at Race Point in Provincetown included an American Golden-Plover, a South Polar Skua, a Sandwich Tern, a Royal Tern, a Glaucous Gull, 2 Little Gulls, 2 Black Guillemots, 2 Wilson’s Storm-Petrels, 7 Cory’s Shearwaters, 2 Great Shearwaters, 2 Sooty Shearwaters, 7 Manx Shearwaters, a Tricolored Heron, and 9 Horned Larks.

    The state of Massachusetts calls the Black-Billed Cuckoo “secretive.” The people at Cornell Bird Lab say it’s “uncommon and elusive.” But this week, two were spotted in Wellfleet. Perhaps it’s best not to stand under these birds. According to those Cornell folks, they love to eat spiny caterpillars, but those spines end up sticking to the linings of their stomachs. “To get rid of the spines, they periodically shed the stomach lining, coughing it up in one giant pellet.” (Photo courtesy Mass. Div. of Fisheries and Wildlife)

    There were 2 Black-Billed Cuckoos at the Wellfleet Bay Sanctuary.

    A single Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron was seen in Eastham. Also, could it be that the Chuck-Will’s-Widow’s wait is over? Because apparently now there are two in town. 

    If you have questions about these sightings or want to report a sighting, call the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary at 508-349-2615 or send an email to [email protected].

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