Date: 5/31/26 12:09 pm From: Gordon Warrick via groups.io <prubinus...> Subject: Re: [NEBirds] Wanted: Cuckoo Sightings
I was at the NOU meeting and heard your talk about the cuckoo surveys. This morning about 8:00 I heard and briefly saw a black-billed cuckoo about 4 miles NW of the Fort complex in Nebraska National Forest. The road to somebody Johnson Lake dead ends at two FS parking/camping areas. It was at the Middle/North Fork Trailheads that I detected the bird. Heard if for a couple of minutes, and walked in to look for it when it flew past me. From that I could see it was a cuckoo. I did not see white in the tail. Listening to the recording on my computer convinced me it was a black-billed. I have seen/heard them before but many decades ago. I hear the yellow-billed not uncommonly.
On Tuesday, April 21, 2026, 10:42:54 AM MDT, Jacob C. Cooper via groups.io <cooperj2...> wrote:
Hi all,
Sawyer Therrien (a UNK undergrad) is spearheading a project to survey cuckoos in the state of Nebraska this summer. We will be doing playback surveys across the state for these species. Given that there are only so many areas that we can cover, the presence (or absence) of cuckoos at different spots would be very useful for us.
- If you have a cuckoo this summer, please email either myself or Sawyer Therrien (<therriens...>)
- If you do hear a cuckoo this summer and youdo not get visual confirmation of it, please check with us as well—there is a chance you may be hearing us doing surveys from a distance, and we can let you know if anyone was in that area.
Any help is appreciated, and we will be updating the Nebraska birding community with our findings this fall.
All the best,
JC
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Jacob C. Cooper, PhD (he/him)
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Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska at Kearney
Bruner Hall of Sciences, Room 321
2401 11th Avenue
Kearney, NE 68849-1130
Research Associate, Field Museum, ChicagoCitizen of the Cherokee Nation
