When I was growing up, my parents had a carved wood cuckoo clock from Germany. The bird that popped out of the clock, however, looked nothing like the Yellow-billed Cuckoos (Coccyzus americanus) that I spotted this past weekend at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. More significantly, the cuckoos that I saw did not make the familiar cuckoo sound that was part of my childhood.
When I did a little research, I learned that the cuckoo family is quite large and spread out all over the world and that the Yellow-billed Cuckoo belongs to a different subfamily from the Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) from Europe. That cuckoo is the one that makes the cuckoo sound used in all of those clocks.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Benjamin thinks the first photo is the “Baby Cuckoo” and the second photo is “Daddy Cuckoo”. His favorite photo is the third of “Mommy Cuckoo hiding in the leaves.” He noticed that only “the bottom of the beak is yellow.” I told him about my Gram’s German Cuckoo Clock and the bird that said cuckoo when it came out of it’s little door. Benjamin thought that was silly. Thank-you, Mr. Mike!!
I think that cuckoo clocks have fallen a bit out of favor these days (and they did drive people a little crazy). I remember having to pull down on some weights to “wind” the clock. I am not surprised that Benjamin noted that only half of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo’s bill is yellow. FYI, the Daddy and Mommy are actually different shots of the same bird. The initial shot was of a different bird that I photographed in a separate location. It sure does look smaller than the others, but I am not sure if that was because of the angle at which I photographed it.
Great find!