Coccyzus minor
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The mangrove cuckoo (Coccyzus minor) is a species of cuckoo that is native to the Neotropics. The mangrove cuckoo was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other cuckoos in the genus Cuculus and coined the binomial name Cuculus minor. Gmelin based his description on "Le petit vieillard" or "Coucou des palétuviers" from Cayenne that had been described and illustrated in 1779 by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. The mangrove cuckoo is now placed with 12 other species in the genus Coccyzus that was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. The genus name is from the Ancient Greek kokkuzō meaning "to cry cuckoo". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
Adults have a long tail, brown above and black-and-white below, and a black curved bill with yellow on the lower mandible. The head and upper parts are brown. There is a yellow ring around the eye. This bird is best distinguished by its black facial mask and buffy underparts. Although the scientific name... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santo Domingo | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 2 | Mexico City | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 3 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 4 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 5 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Mangrove Cuckoo sighting in Palo Verde National Park on a given day, based on 272 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 67th most-seen of the 274 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December to May
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Mangrove Cuckoo in Palo Verde National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June to September, the lowest months. Those are among Palo Verde National Park's driest months, with about 70 mm of rain a month against 480 mm in October.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Mangrove Cuckoo sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 23 parks where we can rate Mangrove Cuckoo sightings, Palo Verde National Park ranks 2nd at about 20%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Los Haitises National Park (Dominican Republic, about 20%).
Same family: Cuculidae
The closest relatives of the Mangrove Cuckoo that you can see in Palo Verde National Park (family Cuculidae, Cuckoos) are Groove-billed Ani (about 70%), Squirrel Cuckoo (about 20%) and Lesser Ground-Cuckoo (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Mangrove Cuckoo is recorded against all the birds logged in Palo Verde National Park (272 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
