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By Cathy Wise
Senior Manager of Community Building, 探花精选 Southwest
Published September 25, 2025
This article is from 探花精选 Southwest
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Imagine yourself as an athletic, long tailed and white breasted bird. Although only dove-sized, you fly to and from Paraguay and the American West twice a year, a journey of some 5,000 miles. You are a part of a distinct population segment (DPS) of the more common birds found east of the continental divide. You are considered a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, meaning the humans need a permit to survey for you!
Unlike your more common eastern colleagues that frequent suburban backyards and nest in city parks, you look to western rivers and humid, bug rich oak woodlands in southeastern Arizona for breeding and nesting. So, you are in the southwest for the hottest, most inhospitable four months of the year. Sadly, pickings are getting slimmer for nesting, and 探花精选 Southwest is well-positioned to tell your sobering, but not hopeless, story.
I first surveyed Western Yellow-billed Cuckoos in central AZ in 2003 while working for the Arizona Game and Fish Department, seven months pregnant. I loved it! Resurfacing from mom-land, I found myself at 探花精选鈥攁nd we revived surveys in 2011 through partnerships with Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. We have continued surveys, mostly in the same areas, for 14 years. My son graduated college!
探花精选 differentiates itself from other conservation organizations by a focus on engagement鈥攁nd our survey efforts always included partners as well as hiring local high school/college students as interns. Over the years, 17 interns assisted 探花精选 with field efforts that are sweaty, strenuous, and require early morning starts.
Post pandemic, stepped up to provide intern support, and maintained their steadfast support to survey on the Verde River. What does all this boil down to? A lot of data, and proof of an overall downward trend in occupancy.
In 2025, we coordinated 15 permitted surveyors, 10 agencies, and 21 interns and/or volunteers to complete four-visit surveys on 20 transects (about 1-2 km each). Reports show that although conditions are drier than ever, bird persist. From June 15-August 15, 2025, data demonstrates that surveyors collectively spent 164 party hours surveying and made a total of 77 detections. Note that a 鈥渄etection鈥 means a bird was heard or seen (or both), but until we map out the detections this fall, it is impossible to determine if we are re-counting the same bird on a territory, or a new bird searching for a mate.
Cuckoos do NOT mate for life and are quite promiscuous on the breeding grounds so during surveys we attract them by playing a taped call. When birds can鈥檛 find mates, they will follow us as we hike/call along our transect, looking鈥 ever hopeful, for a mate (sorry, guys!). Sadly, no nests or nestlings were encountered this season on any routes during our survey season.
Although data analysis is still underway, we are seeing an overall decline in detections as well as habitat quality. Dry conditions and stressed trees were noted on most survey routes, as was a reduction in the volume of other birds鈥攖hese usually produce a morning cacophony surveyors need to mentally sort through while listening for cuckoos. Also noted was a decline in the large insects cuckoos rely on for energy to mate, nest, and raise young. Typically, central Arizona鈥檚 riparian areas are a-buzz with cicada mid-summer, and large grasshoppers abound. This year was markedly quiet.
You are a cuckoo again, and after a long migration to the U.S., things are looking grim. Fortunately for you, central and southern AZ saw later than normal monsoons, so it is possible that post-survey season, you brought off a brood. Now y鈥檃ll are tanking up for a long trip south. But what about next summer?
We can help Western Yellow-billed Cuckoos and other riparian species persist and hopefully thrive during this challenging time by supporting legislature protecting water for wildlife. Please join the today, and make your voice heard. Yellow-billed Cuckoos can鈥檛 advocate, but you can, and if these data aren鈥檛 a call to action, I don鈥檛 know what is.
For more information about Yellow-billed Cuckoos鈥 migration see