Coccyzidae is a family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 of birds comprising 18 new world

New World

The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...

 cuckoo

Cuckoo

The cuckoos are a family, Cuculidae, of near passerine birds. The order Cuculiformes, in addition to the cuckoos, also includes the turacos . Some zoologists and taxonomists have also included the unique Hoatzin in the Cuculiformes, but its taxonomy remains in dispute...

s, ranging from Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 to Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

. The family consists of the genera

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Coccyzus

Coccyzus

Coccyzus is a genus of cuckoos which occur in the Americas.-Species and taxonomy:The species in taxonomic order are:* Black-billed Cuckoo, Coccyzus erythropthalmus* Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Coccyzus americanus...

, Hyetornis, Piaya

Piaya

Piaya is a small genus of relatively large and long-tailed cuckoos, which occur in Mexico, Central America and South America. The two species in taxonomic order are:* Squirrel Cuckoo, Piaya cayana* Black-bellied Cuckoo, Piaya melanogaster...

and Saurothera

Saurothera

Saurothera was a genus of cuckoo in the Cuculidae family. This genus was dissolved and all species were lumped into Coccyzus .Former Saurothera species:* Hispaniolan Lizard Cuckoo...

.
Of those whose habits are known, their main diet is insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s. They tend to nest in trees and can lay up to 7 eggs (Coccyzus) although Saurothura only lays 2-3. Only one of the family, the Black-billed cuckoo

Black-billed Cuckoo

The Black-billed Cuckoo, Coccyzus erythropthalmus, is a cuckoo.Adults have a long brown tail and a black bill. The head and upper parts are brown and the underparts are white. There is a red ring around the eye. Juveniles are drabber, and the eye ring is greenish.Their breeding habitat is edges of...

 Coccyzus erythropthalmus (Wilson), is known to be a brood parasite

Brood parasite

Brood parasites are organisms that use the strategy of brood parasitism, a kind of kleptoparasitism found among birds, fish or insects, involving the manipulation and use of host individuals either of the same or different species to raise the young of the brood-parasite...

. The nesting habits of the genus Piaya, are virtually unknown.

Both the yellow-billed cuckoo

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

The Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Coccyzus americanus, is a cuckoo. Common folk-names for this bird in the southern United States are Rain Crow and Storm Crow...

 and the black-billed cuckoo are vagrants

Vagrancy (biology)

Vagrancy is a phenomenon in biology whereby individual animals appear well outside their normal range; individual animals which exhibit vagrancy are known as vagrants. The term accidental is sometimes also used...

 to Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

.