Tent caterpillar nests built on tree limbs are common sights in yards and trees lining highways throughout Georgia at this time of the year. Each nest contains scores of hairy caterpillars.  While most birds shy away from dining on what appears to be an easy source of food, the yellow-billed cuckoo relishes them.  In fact, it is one of the few bird species that eat them.   They can consume 100 or more tent-building caterpillars during one attack on a tent caterpillar nest.

       The reason why most birds stay clear of the juicy caterpillars that reside in the web-like nests is the caterpillars that live there are covered with stiff spines. The yellow-bellied cuckoo, on the other hand, it is able to eat them because it is able to do so is periodically the bird sheds the lining of its stomach and hairs found there. When the bird expels its stomach lining and stiff caterpillar hairs form a mass that looks much like an owl pellet.