On July 6 and again on July 25, 2023, along the Puerco River in Petrified Forest National Park, two individual Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) birds were observed or heard in two separate locations on United States Fish and Wildlife permitted acoustic, or call back surveys (this is a scientific method that uses recorded bird calls and songs played in the field to attract call backs from birds and help determine species presence, population levels and behavior).

A year later, on July 15, 2024, one individual was heard and August 15, 2024, one individual was observed during routine bird surveys.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo populations declined by 1.6% per year between 1966 and 2010 and western populations of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) were listed as threatened in 2014 by the Fish and Wildlife service. This includes populations in Arizona, California, Western Colorado, Idaho, Western Montana, Western New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Western Texas, Utah, Washington, Western Wyoming, and parts of Canada and Mexico.

The western Yellow-billed Cuckoo breeds in low-to moderate-elevation Cottonwood-willow forests that line the rivers and streams of the western United States. During the 1970’s Yellow-billed Cuckoos were known to breed along what was only 1 mile of river Petrified Forest National Park but the last sighting was in the 1980s. Thanks to boundary expansions within the park there is now over 26 miles of river habitat for the birds but since they are only in their breeding grounds from June through August signs of them breeding in the park again had yet to be observed.

Surveys of the riparian areas of the park will continue in future years and restoration efforts along the Puerco River will include improving habitat for this secretive bird.