The Long-tailed Cuckoo is an uncommon migrant to the Marshall Islands from the southern hemisphere, where it breeds in New Zealand. It was not reported by Clapp in 1990, but we have seen one specimen and know of one other. The one we saw was a very tired bird resting in someone's yard. To keep it away from feral cats, we protected it for a few hours, then moved it to the Kwajalein Public Garden. It appeared to be healthy and was sighted once or twice again in the same area the following weeks. The other individual we have heard of is one photographed by Brian Greene on one of the outer islands.
Created 26 January 2018