Great lizard cuckoo

The great lizard cuckoo, Coccyzus merlini, is a species of bird in the cuckoo family Cuculidae found in the Bahamas and Cuba. It is the largest species in its genus, measuring 42 to 54 centimetres in length, about half of which is tail, and weighing roughly 100 to 155 grams. Adults of the nominate subspecies have an olive-brown crown and upperparts, rufous primaries, a whitish throat, rufous belly and a gray tail with wide white tips, and a patch of red to orange bare skin around the eye. Four subspecies are recognised by the major checklists, though one handbook treats the Bahamian form as a separate species. The bird lives in forest, savanna, scrub and coffee plantations from sea level to at least 1,250 metres and is an opportunistic feeder on lizards, insects, nestling birds, frogs, snakes and sometimes small mammals, seeds and fruit. The Cuban population is assessed as Least Concern and the Bahamian one as Near Threatened.