I hear it as soon as I step out of the car, that resonant, knocking cucucu that I’ve been listening for all across Montana this summer. Black-billed cuckoo! My hands are shaking and my heart is thumping. I slip one headphone on, aim the parabola, and press record. The cuckoo keeps singing.

The black-billed cuckoo is a bird of many mysteries. In this podcast I delve into the biology and wonder of this bird, from the western edge of its breeding range in Montana, USA to the even more mysterious wintering distribution in Colombia and Ecuador. Many thanks to Anna Kurtin (University of Montana) and Dr. Camila Gómez (SELVA, selva.org.co) for their participation in this story, and to their research teams for all of their contributions to our understanding of cuckoos. Thanks to Harriet Marble for telling me about a possible black-billed cuckoo report near the Highwood Mountains, which finally allowed me to observe one! Finally, thanks to Tim Spahr for his permission to include his black-billed cuckoo song and flight call recordings in the podcast, and to Ian van Coller, Bo Crees, and Peter Dudley for letting me include their photos in the written version.

Besides Tim Spahr’s black-billed cuckoo song and calls, this podcast also includes many of my own sound recordings from Montana: black-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus erythropthalmus), black-headed grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus), great horned owl (Bubo virginianus), yellow-breasted chat (Icteria virens), orchard oriole (Icterus spurius), northern house wren (Troglodytes aedon), eastern warbling-vireo (Vireo gilvus), Baltimore oriole (Icterus galbula), western wood-pewee (Contopus sordidulus), common nighthawk (Chordeiles minor), American kestrel (Falco sparverius), and brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum). Also an eastern screech-owl (Megascops asio) from Nebraska and a Middle American screech-owl (M. guatemalae) from Oaxaca, Mexico.

As always, I depend on the support of my listeners to continue doing this work. Please share these podcasts, leave a rating, and, if you’re able, support me through Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wildwithnature. Thank you!!!

You can find the written, illustrated version of this story here: https://wildwithnature.com/2025/09/01/the-silence-before-the-cuckoos-song/

Lo escucho inmediatamente al bajar del carro, ese cucucú resonante que he estado buscando por todas partes de Montana este verano. ¡Un cuclillo pico negro! Mis manos están temblando y mi corazón está latiendo fuerte. Me pongo un solo audífono, apunto la parábola y empiezo a grabar. El cuclillo sigue cantando.

El cuclillo pico negro (Coccyzus erythropthalmus) es un ave de muchos misterios. En este podcast profundizo en la biología y el asombro de esta especie, desde el margen occidental de su distribución reproductiva en Montana, EU hasta la distribución no reproductiva aún menos conocida en Colombia y Ecuador. Muchas gracias a Anna Kurtin (Universidad de Montana) y a la doctora Camila Gómez (SELVA, selva.org.co) por su participación en esta historia, y a sus equipos de investigación por todas sus contribuciones a nuestro conocimiento de esta especie. Agradezco a Harriet Marble por contarme de un posible reporte de un cuclillo pico negro cerca de las Montañas Highwood, que finalmente me permitió observar a uno. Gracias también a Tim Spahr por su permiso para incluir sus grabaciones del canto y la llamada de vuelo del cuclillo en el podcast, y a Ian van Coller, Bo Crees y Peter Dudley por dejarme incluir sus fotos en la versión escrita.

Además del canto y la llamada de vuelo del cuclillo grabados por Tim Spahr, el podcast también incluye muchas de mis propias grabaciones desde Montana, EU: cuclillo pico negro (Coccyzus erythropthalmus), picogordo tigrillo (Pheucticus melanocephalus), búho cornudo (Bubo virginianus), chipe grande (Icteria virens), calandria castaña (Icterus spurius), saltapared común norteño (Troglodytes aedon), vireo gorjeador del este (Vireo gilvus), calandria de Baltimore (Icterus galbula), papamoscas del oeste (Contopus sordidulus), chotacabras zumbón (Chordeiles minor), cernícalo americano (Falco sparverius) y cuicachoche castaño (Toxostoma rufum). También un tecolote del este (Megascops asio) desde Nebraska, EU y un tecolote sapo (M. guatemalae) desde Oaxaca, México.

Como siempre, dependo del apoyo de mis oyentes para seguir con este proyecto. Favor de compartir estos podcasts, dejarme un rating y (si puedes) hacerme una cooperación a través de Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wildwithnature. Muchísimas gracias!!!

Puedes encontrar la versión escrita con la historia aquí, con muchas fotos del campo: https://wildwithnature.com/2025/09/01/el-silencio-antes-del-canto-del-cuclillo/

It was the possibility—slim though it was—of black-billed cuckoos (Coccyzus erythropthalmus) that brought me to the Marias River. In 2021, while Anna Fasoli was floating the river, she heard and recorded a singing cuckoo here. This is a bird that I’ve lived my whole life without encountering, a bird which a long-ago generation of nineteenth-century naturalists would observe descending on orchards in flocks to feed on caterpillars. Hardly anyone sees flocks of black-billed cuckoos now. To see a cuckoo at all, at least in Montana, is a rare encounter that takes a lot of effort, a lot of luck, or both. But the decline of black-billed cuckoos, like almost every aspect of their biology, remains shrouded in unknowns. And so here I am, listening to rock wrens in a dark badlands gully, bound for the river and imagining cuckoos.

This month’s story will immerse you in a world at the river’s edge that black-billed cuckoos inhabited—and do they still? The podcast includes many of my natural sound recordings: rock wren (Salpinctes obsoletus), northern house wren (Troglodytes aedon), great horned owl (Bubo virginianus), grasshopper sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum), eastern kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus), gray catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), Swainson’s thrush (Catharus ustulatus), western wood-pewee (Contopus sordidulus), least flycatcher (Empidonax minimus), yellow-headed blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus), red-naped sapsucker (Sphyrapicus nuchalis), and black-headed grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus). As well as the alarm sound of a beaver (Castor canadensis). In other words, it’s a journey among a sea of sounds from the riparian zone!

As always, I depend on the support of my listeners to continue doing this work. Please share these podcasts, leave a rating, and, if you’re able, support me through Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wildwithnature. Thank you!!!

You can find the written, illustrated version of this story here: https://wildwithnature.com/2025/08/01/how-to-not-find-black-billed-cuckoos/