With a name like lizard cuckoo, I really wanted to see this bird! It gets its name from its diet which includes anole lizards and the food it feeds its young is primarily lizards. It also eats mice, nestling birds, tree frogs and insects.
It is endemic to Jamaica and widespread, but uncommon.
What really stands out is the tail, which is as long as the body. The underside, the only part I saw, is very white with black tips. It has a brown forehead, crown and nape. The eye is surrounded by bare red skin. The upperparts are gray with rufous primaries. The throat is white and the rest of the underparts are rufous.
I saw this with my bird guide, Lyndon, in the seven acre garden at Hotel Mockingbird Hill, east of Port Antonio. I got quite close to it, but it was always above me and my view was of its underparts.
For a bird that eats lizards, that beak is surprising. I would expect something a little wider and heavier.
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