Our ongoing efforts to study, protect, nurture and harass the threatened Southwestern Coccyzus americanus have come to glorious fruition in the form of three spiny, gape-mouthed, ungainly and hideously adorable nestlings:
These little buggers are all from the same nest, fathered by the first YBCU we caught, Screech La Rue. YB Cuckoos, like most other birds of their body mass, lay egg one per day, and, as they are incubated from the day they laid, the nestlings hatch about day apart from one another–thus the disparity of size. Based on size, moult and the behaviour of the parents over the last week, we believe the largest of our nestlings to be five days old and the second largest to be four days old. The smallest one we think is three days old, even though it is about the size of a two-day old, most likely the problem of competition with its two older siblings.
While nestling competetion is not as prominant in C. americanus as other species, a shortage of resources can knock out the younger siblings. The cicada boom is in full swing here, so we don't think it is as much a lack of resources as it is a shortage of bills to carry them. As far as we can tell, Screech's mate has eloped with Long John, the second cuckoo we caught, and has started a new nest. This is extremely common behaviour for females of the Western populations…we don't have any idea how often it happens out East.
Anyway, I'll swear one of these days I'll get to talking about the BUOWs, as well as posting pictures of the whole gang. But until then, please croon lovingly over the pin-feathered countenance of our little angels:
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