Channel-billed Cuckoo's 18/01/11

I realize that these photos of the Chanel-billed Cuckoo are rather poor, but I have been trying to get a photo of them for weeks!  They have been hanging around here now early mornings and late afternoons and are seen regularly being chased away by the local crows.  (see below further info for those who do not know of the unsual breeding habits of the Channel-billed Cuckoo)



Breeding
The Channel-billed Cuckoo lays its eggs in the nests of the Australian Magpie, Gymnorhina tibicen, the Pied Currawong, Strepera graculina and members of the crow family (Corvidae). Unlike many other cuckoos, the young birds do not evict the host's young or eggs from the nest, but simply grow faster and demand all the food, thus starving the others. Often the adult female will damage the existing eggs in the nest when she lays her own and she may even lay more than one egg in a single nest.

Comments