Winter Bird Count The Roadrunner’s Cousin

December 12, 2025

Submitted by:

Alexander Greenwood

Department of Environmental Quality Wildlife and Ecosystems Management Program

Imagine this: You are driving down a desert road on a hot summer day when, out of nowhere, a lanky brown bird flashes across the road. It is the greater roadrunner, a recognizable symbol of the Southwest. Confident, curious, and quick, the roadrunner thrives in the desert and among the farmlands. For many in the Gila River Indian Community, thadai (greater roadrunner) is a familiar sight. What most people don’t know is that the greater roadrunner has a cousin that also lives in the Community, the yellow-billed cuckoo, or Kathgam in O’odham. Despite being relatives, the two couldn’t be more dissimilar. Where the greater roadrunner boldly paces around the environment, the yellow-billed cuckoo prefers to hide and quietly fly among the cool shade provided by the cottonwoods and willows. 

On rare summer mornings, you may just be lucky enough to hear the “coos” of the yellow-billed cuckoo from the cottonwood trees. The cool, shaded conditions of a canopy of willow and cottonwood trees provide the right environment for cuckoos to forage and breed. These verdant corridors once lined much of the Gila River, offering refuge for birds, insects, and people alike. Upstream diversions of the river reduced this once connected corridor to small, interspersed tracts of habitat. Today, these vital habitats are disappearing. Water scarcity, drought, and overgrazing threaten these remaining refugia of riparian habitat. Unfortunately, the decline of riparian habitat has also led to reduced numbers of yellow-billed cuckoos, so much so that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service listed the western, yellow-billed cuckoo as threatened in 2014. The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Wildlife and Ecosystems Management Program (WEMP) has studied the population of yellow-billed cuckoos in GRIC over the years. In the summer of 2025, WEMP completed Community-wide cuckoo surveys. Binoculars in hand, WEMP staff headed to the field to collect population data for yellow-billed cuckoos in various corners of the Community. Alexander Greenwood, the wildlife biologist, was fortunate to be assisted by members of the Tribal Fuels and Restoration Crew as well as DEQ’s summer intern, Cailinn Allen. While the fieldwork was challenging and daily temperatures regularly exceeded 100 degrees, we remained upbeat and positive even through infrequent success. Cailinn recounts, “After weeks of long drives across the community and dusty treks, it was all worth it finally seeing a kathgam.”

Following the 2025 survey season, WEMP completed an evaluation of these surveys. Through these surveys, WEMP staff were able to identify various tracts of habitat in the Community that are inhabited by yellow-billed cuckoos. Several sites where cuckoos had previously been identified appeared to be experiencing decline. On the other hand, sites such as the MAR-5 Gila River Interpretive continue to offer promising habitat for yellow-billed cuckoos. The cottonwood and willow poles that were planted eight years ago have flourished under the steady supply of water. These trees now form a lush and vibrant canopy amidst the desert. 

For many in the Community, these trees are more than habitat- they are part of a living memory. Cailinn’s grandfather, Billy, remembers a time when cottonwoods lined farm fields throughout the Community. Billy recently paid a visit to the MAR-5 Gila River Interpretive Trail (GRIT) and was pleasantly surprised to be surrounded by the familiar aroma of cottonwood and willow trees. The GRIT serves as a reminder of what the Gila River once was and what it still has the potential to be.  For the yellow-billed cuckoo, these green corridors offer refuge and hope for recovery.