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Cuckoos tend to be just heavy enough to bounce out of the mist nets we use. Consequently, we have only banded six cuckoos in ten years, all Black-billed (C. erythropthalmus). On 13 Sep 2002, we finally caught our first Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Photo: A. Chartier. |
  Often cuckoos are still undergoing their prebasic (fall) molt when banded in autumn and look quite scruffy. This bird was nearly finished molting, and was quite sleek and dapper. Top photo: J. Craves; bottom: A. Chartier |
We aged this bird as a hatching year based on the color and shape of the tail feathers and extent of skull ossification. Photo: J. Craves
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