The Black-billed Cuckoo is a real vagrant to the north coast, with only three records to date. Only one of these was in a site accessible to recreational birders. The species is rather common in Eastern North America, but migrates to Central and South America in the northern winter. They build flimsy, open nests or platforms of sticks in dense cover in deciduous trees and shrubs. Average clutch is 3-4 eggs, and both adults incubate and care for the young.
Cuckoos are caterpillar specialists.
These are caught by careful, deliberate searches of twigs and foliage in mainly riparian and deciduous woodlands. Except when defending territories, cuckoos are rather quiet and rather ghost-like birds. They pass through largely unnoticed in migration. They blend into the dense cover and hunt quietly by stalking or quietly perching and searching for prey with their acute vision.