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Historic Status

Black-billed Cuckoos have long been a feature of the Massachusetts birdscape. They may have expanded their breeding range northward following human habitation, and as Massachusetts stood at the vanguard of colonization in the New World, the abundance of the bird’s preferred agricultural habitat – specifically orchards –made for a good pairing (Bent 1937). Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century ornithologists used the word “common” in reference to the bird in Massachusetts and lauded its caterpillar-killing capabilities. “The Black-billed Cuckoo is, on the whole, one of the most useful birds of farm and orchard and deserves full protection,” wrote Edward Howe Forbush in 1927. The move away from agriculture, though, would eventually shake the Black-billed Cuckoo's foundation in Massachusetts as the twentieth century progressed.

Atlas 1 Distribution

Breeding Black-billed Cuckoos were widely scattered in Atlas 1. The thickets of the northern Marble Valleys had a remarkable density of breeding cuckoos, but the species was otherwise quite local in western Massachusetts. They were locally encountered in suitable habitat across the Connecticut River Valley and the Worcester Plateau into the Coastal Plains. Particular concentrations in the northeastern and southeastern Coastal Plains were likely attributable to regenerating forests as well as the confluence of multiple river systems. The western Boston Basin had breeding cuckoos, and the Bristol/Narragansett Lowlands reflected breeding evidence in more than a third of all blocks. Though less commonly encountered on the Cape and Islands, Black-billed Cuckoos were nonetheless widespread in this region, and were even found at Provincetown and many of the offshore islands.

Atlas 2 Distribution and Change

By the end of Atlas 2, it became obvious that Black-billed Cuckoos were in decline in Massachusetts. The bird’s secretive nature has always made the species difficult to Confirm, and in Atlas 2 few Atlas workers were able to do more than record the species as Possible in many blocks, although the fact remains that the species was also found in fewer places in Atlas 2 than in Atlas 1. The disruptions in distribution were most apparent in eastern Massachusetts, where the bird’s footprint shrank in the Bristol/Narragansett Lowlands and the Coastal Plains, the Boston Basin, and Cape Cod and the Islands. Their only increases in overall sightings occurred in the Berkshire ecoregions. The role of natural cycles of caterpillar abundance in this species’ occupancy patterns is unclear but likely important.

Atlas 1 Map

Atlas 2 Map

Atlas Change Map