Experts were debating whether this bird, first sighted in Watsonville by Lois Goldfrank and Steve Gerow on September 28, 2012, was a Common or Oriental Cuckoo, with opinion heavily inclined to Common. If that ID is accepted, it will be the second Common Cuckoo ever seen in the Lower 48. These are the prominent cuckoos of the Old World, famous for their "cuckoo clock" call and their habit of nest parasitism. Like most vagrants, this bird is a juvenile, as indicated by the rufous banding and the while patch on the nape.