View source for Coccyzus

{{Short description|Genus of birds}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| name =  ''Coccyzus''
| image = Black-billed-cuckoo2.jpg
| image_caption = [[Black-billed cuckoo]] (''Coccyzus erythropthalmus'')
| taxon = Coccyzus
| authority = [[Louis Pierre Vieillot|Vieillot]], 1816
| type_species = ''Cuculus americanus'' ([[yellow-billed cuckoo]])
| type_species_authority = [[Carl Linnaeus|Linnaeus]], 1758
| subdivision_ranks = [[Species]]
| subdivision =
13, see text
| synonyms =''Hyetornis''<br />
''Saurothera''
}}
'''''Coccyzus''''' is a [[genus]] of  [[cuckoo]]s which occur in the [[Americas]]. The genus name is from [[Ancient Greek]] ''kokkuzo'', which means to call like a [[common cuckoo]]. The genus includes the lizard cuckoos that were formerly included in the genus ''Saurothera''.
==Taxonomy==
The genus ''Coccyzus'' was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist [[Louis Pierre Vieillot]] to accommodate a single species, [[Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon|Comte de Buffon's]] "Coucou de la Caroline", now the [[yellow-billed cuckoo]]. This which is therefore the [[type species]].<ref>{{cite book | last=Vieillot  | first=Louis Pierre | author-link=Louis Pierre Vieillot | year=1816 | title=Analyse d'une Nouvelle Ornithologie Élémentaire | publisher=Deterville/self |  location=Paris | page = 28 | language=French| url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9745205x/f34.item }}<!--BHL has a scan of an 1883 reprint - same pagination http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/12830237 --></ref><ref>{{ cite book | editor-last=Peters | editor-first=James Lee | editor-link=James L. Peters | year=1940 | title=Check-List of Birds of the World | volume=4 | publisher=Harvard University Press | location=Cambridge, Massachusetts  | page=41 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14476512 }}</ref> The genus name is from the [[Ancient Greek]] ''kokkuzō'' meaning "to cry cuckoo".<ref>{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn=978-1-4081-2501-4 | page=112 | url=https://archive.org/stream/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling#page/n112/mode/1up }}</ref>
The results of a [[molecular phylogenetic]] study of the cuckoo family by Michael Sorenson and [[Robert B. Payne|Robert Payne]] that was published in 2005 lead to a reorganization of some of the genera. Based on this study, the genera ''Saurothera'' (the lizard cuckoos) and ''Hyetornis'' (chestnut-bellied and bay-breasted cuckoos) were lumped with ''Coccyzus'' while the [[ash-colored cuckoo]] and [[dwarf cuckoo]], at one time separated in ''Micrococcyx'', were found to be closest relatives of the [[little cuckoo]], formerly in ''[[Piaya]]''. These three species were placed in the resurrected genus ''[[Coccycua]]''.<ref>{{ cite book | last1=Sorenson | first1= M.D. | last2=Payne | first2=R.B. | author2-link=  Robert B. Payne | date=2005 | chapter=A molecular genetic analysis of cuckoo phylogeny | editor-last=Payne | editor-first=R.B. | title=The Cuckoos | location=Oxford | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=0-19-850213-3 | pages=68–94 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1=Banks | first1=R.C. | last2=Cicero | first2=C. | last3=Dunn | first3=J.L. | last4=Kratter | first4=A.W. | last5=Rasmussen | first5=P.C. | last6=Remsen | first6=J.V. | last7=Rising | first7=J.D. | last8=Stotz | first8=D.F. | date=2006 | title=Forty-Seventh Supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-List of North American Birds | journal=The Auk | volume=123 | issue=3 | pages=926–936 | doi=10.1093/auk/123.3.926 | doi-access=free}}</ref>
==Species==
The genus contains 13 species:<ref name=ioc>{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela Rasmussen | date=January 2022 | title=Turacos, bustards, cuckoos, mesites, sandgrouse | work=IOC World Bird List Version 12.1 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/new/bow/turacos/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=13 August 2022}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Image !! Common Name !! Scientific name !! Distribution
|-
|[[File:Black-billed-cuckoo.jpg|120px]] || [[Black-billed cuckoo]] || ''Coccyzus erythropthalmus'' || Eastern North America, the Caribbean, Central America, and the Andes
|-
|[[File:Coccyzus-americanus-001.jpg|120px]] || [[Yellow-billed cuckoo]] || ''Coccyzus americanus'' || Eastern United States, Central America, and eastern South America
|-
|[[File:Pearly-breasted Cuckoo.jpg|120px]]|| [[Pearly-breasted cuckoo]] || ''Coccyzus euleri'' || Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Suriname, Peru, and Venezuela
|-
|[[File:Mangrove Cuckoo.jpg|120px]] || [[Mangrove cuckoo]] ||  ''Coccyzus minor'' ||southern Florida in the United States, the Bahamas, the Caribbean, both coasts of Mexico and Central America, and the Atlantic coast of South America as far south as the mouth of the Amazon River.
|-
||| [[Cocos cuckoo]] || ''Coccyzus ferrugineus'' ||Costa Rica
|-
|[[File:Coccyzus melacoryphus.jpg|120px]] || [[Dark-billed cuckoo]] || ''Coccyzus melacoryphus'' || Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela
|-
| || [[Grey-capped cuckoo]] || ''Coccyzus lansbergi'' ||Aruba, Colombia, Ecuador, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.
|-
|[[File:Chestnut-bellied Cuckoo 2506091171 (cropped).jpg|120px]] || [[Chestnut-bellied cuckoo]] || ''Coccyzus pluvialis'' || Jamaica
|-
|[[File:Coccyzus rufigularis 1199518 (cropped).jpg|120px]]|| [[Bay-breasted cuckoo]] || ''Coccyzus rufigularis'' || Dominican Republic
|-
|[[File:Coccyzus merlini -Pinar del Rio Province, Cuba-8 (1).jpg|120px]] || [[Great lizard cuckoo]] || ''Coccyzus merlini'' || The Bahamas (on Andros, Eleuthera and New Providence) and Cuba
|-
|[[File:Coccyzus vieilloti (cropped).jpg|120px]] || [[Puerto Rican lizard cuckoo]] || ''Coccyzus vieilloti'' || Puerto Rico
|-
|[[File:Jamaican Lizard-Cuckoo (cropped).jpg|120px]] || [[Jamaican lizard cuckoo]] || ''Coccyzus vetula'' ||Jamaica
|-
|[[File:DRbirds Hispaniolan-Lizard Cuckoo 2c.jpg|120px]] || [[Hispaniolan lizard cuckoo]] || ''Coccyzus longirostris'' || Hispaniola (both Haiti and the Dominican Republic)
|-
|}
==Description and ecology==
These [[bird]]s are of variable size with slender bodies, long tails and strong legs. Many have black and white undertail patterns. They occur in a variety of forests, woodlands or [[mangrove]]s.
''Coccyzus'' cuckoos, unlike many [[Old World]] species, build their own nests in trees and lay two or more eggs. [[Yellow-billed cuckoo|Yellow-billed]] and [[black-billed cuckoo]]s occasionally lay [[egg (biology)|egg]]s in the nests of other birds, but are not obligate [[brood parasite]]s like the [[common cuckoo]] of Eurasia.
Northern species such as yellow-billed and black-billed cuckoos are strong [[bird migration|migrants]], wintering in [[Central America|Central]] or [[South America]], and occasionally wander to western [[Europe]] as rare vagrants, but the tropical  ''Coccyzus'' cuckoos are mainly sedentary.
These are vocal species when breeding, with persistent and loud calls. They feed on large [[insect]]s such as [[cicada]]s, [[wasp]]s and [[caterpillar]]s (including those with stinging hairs or spines which are distasteful to many birds). Lizard cuckoos are large and powerful species, and mainly take [[vertebrate]] prey, especially, as the name implies, [[lizard]]s.
==References==<!-- Systematics and Biodiversity4: 483–488 10.1017/S1477200006002052 -->
{{Reflist}}
{{Otidimorphae|C.|state=collapsed}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q592593}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Coccyzus| ]]
[[Category:Bird genera]]
[[Category:Birds of the Americas|*]]
[[Category:Taxa named by Louis Pierre Vieillot]]