Phylum Chordata Rank Species | Family Cuculidae Scientific name Coccyzus merlini Higher classification Saurothera Order Cuculiformes | |
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Conservation status Least Concern (Population stable) Similar Bird, Cuckoos, Puerto Rican lizard cuc, Coccyzus, Jamaican lizard cuckoo | ||
Great lizard cuckoo cuba 08 april 13
The great lizard cuckoo (Coccyzus merlini) is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. The species is also known as the Cuban lizard cuckoo. It is found in The Bahamas (on Andros, Eleuthera and New Providence) and Cuba.
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Great lizard cuckoo at 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.
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.
