Knowledge of the status of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) in the Greater Antilles has been clouded by the bird's elusive behavior and spotty distribution on the islands, and by a major movement of North American migrants through the area to and from their wintering grounds in South America. Although Bond (1956) states that they breed in the Greater Antilles, nests are known only from Cuba, St. Croix (Bond 1956), and Jamaica (Lack 1976), and Bond considered the bird rare in Puerto Rico. Other students of Puerto Rican ornithology have suggested that the species is "uncommon" (Leopold 1963), "rare" (McCandless 1958), or a regular migrant or resident species (Wetmore 1916). Although no nests have been reported, most authors suspect that it breeds, and agree that it frequents coastal areas in western or southwestern Puerto Rico, primarily from May to September (Wetmore 1916, Danforth 1936, McCandless 1958, Leopold 1963, Biaggi 1970). From 1968 to 1971 we conducted linear strip censuses along pre-selected routes throughout the island, counting all birds heard or seen (Kepler and Kepler 1970); data we obtained on the Yellow-billed Cuckoo helped clarify and amplify existing information on its distribution and status.
