Addendum to this morning's bird post - cu cu cuckoo!

I was just going to add a few words to the original post, but things move fast around here sometimes and get bigger than expected! This is the feedback I got since I posted earlier (see below). Thank you Nadine, Nancy and Teresa. You all rock!

How do I love Culebra? Let me count the ways...


[edited to add: I ran into Nadine who informed me that this bird is called an ani, then got home to an email that it is a cuckoo. Both are correct, the ani being a type of cuckoo. No wonder I like them! Seen close up, they don't really look like parrots...Thanks, ladies - yikes, make that TWO emails, one I will partially quote here:

"The black birds are Smooth-billed Anis, common year-round residents. They are in the Cuckoo family (long tail) and nest in Bahiahonda (Mesquite) or other similar trees. They're fascinating; you usually see them in groups although the same individuals don't stay in those groups year round. Biologists from McMaster University in Canada have studied them in Cabo Rojo for many years and have learned a lot about their ecology. I've seen them "hunting" as a group, walking in a line side by side on the ground with wings outspread, foraging for insects. Sometimes you can hear them "clucking" as they hop about on trees, but their signature call is a up-tilted whistle. Once you hear it you'll always associate it with that bird here in Culebra. Anyway, lots to tell about them."