Great Lizard-cuckoo

Taxobox
name = Great Lizard-cuckoo


status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Cuculiformes
familia = Cuculidae
genus = "Coccyzus"
species = "S. merlini"
binomial = "Coccyzus merlini"
binomial_authority = 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 Bahamas, Cuba, and Turks and Caicos Islands.

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 in length and weighs around 155 g. 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. The 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 2-3 eggs.

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

References

* BirdLife International 2004. [http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/47885/all Saurothera merlini] . [http://www.iucnredlist.org 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. ] Downloaded on 24 July 2007.
* Payne R.B. (1997) "Family Cuculidae (Cuckoos)" in "Handbook of the Birds of the World Volume 4; Sandgrouse to Cuckoos" (eds del Hoyo J, Elliott A, Sargatal J) Lynx Edicions:Barcelona. ISBN 84-87334-22-9