The yellow-billed cuckoo was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.

[3] The yellow-billed cuckoo is now placed with 12 other species in the genus Coccyzus that was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot.

[5] Adults have a long tail, brown above and black-and-white below, and a black curved bill with yellow especially on the lower mandible.

Measurements:[7] Their breeding habitat is deciduous woods from southern Canada to Mexico and the Caribbean.

This question is significant to the conservation status of this species in the west, where it has declined to a tiny fraction of its population a century ago.

[13][14] Controversy over the taxonomic status and heavy pressure from livestock and mining industries caused the Trump administration to attempt to end the species' protections, and the FWS reviewed the bird's listing.

[15] In September 2020, the USFWS determined that the western DPS of yellow-billed cuckoo is distinct, and the listing as Threatened is warranted.