What does the Black-billed Cuckoo eat?

The Black-billed Cuckoo's diet shapes where and when you'll find it. Understanding what it eats helps you predict where to look.

Diet overview

Primarily large insects, especially caterpillars (including tent caterpillars, gypsy moth larvae, and fall webworms), cicadas, katydids, grasshoppers, and beetles. Also consumes some spiders, snails, and small fruits/berries.

How it forages

Forages secretively within dense foliage, often climbing and hopping through branches in search of insects. It can also hover briefly to snatch prey. It has a unique method of digesting hairy caterpillars by shedding its stomach lining, which is then regurgitated, along with the indigestible hairs.

When it feeds

Primarily diurnal, though nocturnal during migration.

Explore the Black-billed Cuckoo