Please consider this message a formal proposal to add the Yellow-billed Cuckoo to the Review Species list. I believe the cuckoo qualifies as a review species under bylaws item V. B. 1. a.:

B. Review List

1. The Review List will be updated from time to time by the Committee.

a. In general, the Review List will consist of species that have occurred within Utah on average two or fewer times per year in each of the ten years immediately preceding revision of the Review List.

I'm aware of just a handful of reports of Yellow-billed Cuckoos in the state in the last eight years or so, the time I've lived in Utah. While it's possible that the species occurs in under-covered areas in central-south Utah, we have little information to know if that's true.

E-bird produced more reports. I queried the years 1999-2009 and came up with eight reports, several of which I was aware of.

I also reviewed the data available on the BBS website and did not find one report of the species in Utah in all the data compiled from 1966-2007. While roadside surveys might not reflect the true status of a species likely to be found in riparian stands of cottonwoods and willows, I believe the dearth of reports is significant.

A survey effort in the DWR's Northern Region in 2004 (I think) did not elicit one response to recorded playbacks in likely habitats along rivers and wooded inlet ends of reservoirs in the region.

I think we need to take the lack of reports and data about this bird at face value and reflect its status, which is likely declining in Utah as in many other places in the U.S., on the review species list.