Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoos: Puerto Rico Five-One Water Quality Icons

Summary: Affinities for clean wooded watersheds argue for Puerto Rican lizard-cuckoos as Puerto Rico Five-One water quality icons August 2019.

In his 1850 description of the Puerto Rican lizard-cuckoo (Coccyzus vieilloti) as Saurothera vieilloti, French ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte (May 24, 1803-July 29, 1857) referenced French bird painter Paul Louis Oudart's (Jan. 26, 1796-1860) illustration, under the synonym of "Le Taco, in La Galerie des Oiseaux (1834) by French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot (May 10, 1748-Aug. 24, 1830); Godefroy Engelmann, lithography; L.P. Vieillot, La Galerie des Oiseaux (1834), tome premier, deuxième partie, Pl. 38, opposite page 25: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr

Fledgling and nest-assembling Puerto Rican lizard-cuckoos, arguable Puerto Rico Five-One water quality icons, abound away from adulterated watersheds throughout August 2019, national water quality month in the insular, lower, upper United States.

Christopher Columbus's (Oct. 31, 1451?-May 20, 1506) second voyage to the New World brought Borinquén ("Land of Brave People") under the Spanish Crown Nov. 19, 1493. The Treaty of Paris April 11, 1899, conveyed the Spanish Colony of Puerto Rico ("Rich Port") with the Spanish-American War's (April 21, 1898-Aug. 13, 1898) conclusion. The Jones-Shafroth Act March 2, 1917, and the Puerto Rico Constitution July 25, 1952, respectively declared Puerto Ricans United States citizens and Puerto Rico a Commonwealth.

Darren P. Soto, Democratic Representative for Florida's 9th district, entered the Puerto Rico Admission Act for Five-One statehood March 28, 2019, into the 116th Congressional agenda.

The proposed bill, if favored by the 116th Congress, features condition-free Puerto Rico Five-One statehood within 90 days of the signed approval of the 45th president.

August 2019, national and therefore Puerto Rico Five-One water quality month, gives the greatest chances for glimpsing Puerto Rican lizard-cuckoos, as interbreeding-season fledglings and interbreeding-season nest-builders. The Cuculidae (from Greek κόκκυξ, "cuckoo" and -ειδής, "-like") family and Passeriformes (from Latin passer, "sparrow" and -formis, "shaped") order mother-to-be has perhaps two seasonal broods. Puerto Rican lizard-cuckoos, identified by Charles Bonaparte (May 24, 1803-July 29, 1857), install leafy, twiggy platform-like nests at 2- to 20-foot (0.61- to 6.09-meter) above-ground heights.

The Puerto Rico Five-One water quality icons juggle two to three non-glossy, smooth, white eggs biannually at nesting sites in year-round territories within 3,822.41-square-mile (9,900-square-kilometer) homelands.

Three- to nine-year life cycles kindle eight-month breeding seasons from February through May and September through December; nine- to 14-day incubations; and 21- to 24-day nest-keeping.

Puerto Rican lizard-cuckoos look like black-skinned, pink-mouthed, white-haired hatchlings with black-tipped tongues and gray-yellow jaw-edged gape flanges; sighted two- to three-day-olds; and branch-climbing seven- to nine-day-olds. They mature from short-billed, cinnamon-breasted, brown-bodied juveniles with orange-red eye-rings into long-, narrow- and straight-billed, gray-white-breasted, brown-gray-bodied adults with red eye-rings and double-, white-spotted outer-tail feathers. Puerto Rican lizard-cuckoos, named Coccyzus vieilloti (from Greek κόκκυξ, "cuckoo," for Louis Vieillot, May 10, 1748-Aug. 24, 1830), net brown irises, blue-gray limbs and black-and-white tails.

Long-tailed, short-winged Puerto Rico Five-One water quality icons August 2019 observe black upper and yellow lower jaws, gray-white chins and throats and chestnut bellies and vents.

Puerto Rican lizard-cuckoos possess 2.63- to 3.89-ounce (74.5- to 110.5-gram), 15.75- to 18.89-inch (40- to 48-centimeter) beak-tail and 14.96- to 15.75-inch (38- to 40-centimeter) tail lengths.

Ground- through canopy-gleaning more than direct, flapping, gliding, non-circling, non-swooping, swift flights queues up beetle, caterpillar, cicada, earwig, grasshopper, lizard, moth, spider and stick insect prey. Puerto Rican lizard-cuckoos require brushy limestone hills; deciduous, dry-season, evergreen, swampy, tropical forests; and pine and shade-coffee plantations from coastal sea-level lowlands through 2,624.67-foot (800-meter) altitudes. They sound before rainstorms or 10 a.m. and after 4 p.m. harsh, raucous or low, soft caw calls; and long, rapid, ratcheted cao-cao-cuc-cruc and ka-ka-ka-ka songs.

National and state forests take in Puerto Rican lizard-cuckoos, pájaros de agua y de lluvia ("rain and water birds") and Puerto Rico Five-One water quality icons.

Endemic to Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican lizard-cuckoo (Coccyzus vieilloti) is one of only four species of lizard-cuckoos occurring in Caribbean islands; Puerto Rican lizard-cuckoo in Guánica Dry Forest, southwest Puerto Rico: Nicole Gutierrez @Nicole_Gutierrz, via Twitter Feb. 22, 2019

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

In his 1850 description of the Puerto Rican lizard-cuckoo (Coccyzus vieilloti) as Saurothera vieilloti, French ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte (May 24, 1803-July 29, 1857) referenced French bird painter Paul Louis Oudart's (Jan. 26, 1796-1860) illustration, under the synonym of "Le Taco, in La Galerie des Oiseaux (1834) by French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot (May 10, 1748-Aug. 24, 1830); Godefroy Engelmann, lithography; L.P. Vieillot, La Galerie des Oiseaux (1834), tome premier, deuxième partie, Pl. 38, opposite page 25: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/51264298113/;
Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/58574379;
Iconographia Zoologica, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saurothera_vieilloti_-_1825-1834_-_Print_-_Iconographia_Zoologica_-_Special_Collections_University_of_Amsterdam_-_UBA01_IZ18800187.tif

Endemic to Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican lizard-cuckoo (Coccyzus vieilloti) is one of only four species of lizard-cuckoos occurring in Caribbean islands; Puerto Rican lizard-cuckoo in Guánica Dry Forest, southwest Puerto Rico: Nicole Gutierrez @Nicole_Gutierrz, via Twitter Feb. 22, 2019, @ https://twitter.com/Nicole_Gutierrz/status/1098926788829499392

For further information:

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