Channel-billed Cuckoos are large, strange-looking birds with red eyes, a large canoe-shaped beak, and a strangely apologetic way of moving around. These cuckoos migrate to Australia’s south-eastern coast in the warmer months, and they’ve just arrived for this year’s summer.

When provoked, Channel-billed Cuckoo’s make a reptilian hissing noise. With their red eyes and fierce beaks, and the prehistoric way that they move, they remind me that their ancestors were dinosaurs.

Like many other cuckoos, these birds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, such as Currawongs, and leave the raising of their chicks to the adoptive parents.

A Channel-billed Cuckoo’s life is not a peaceful one. Several other species do their best to chase the cuckoos out of the neighbourhood, to prevent them from hi-jacking nests. In this video, the cuckoo ducks the persistent swooping of Noisy Miners (hint: set the video quality to high definition for best viewing):

You can find out more about these birds in my other posts about cuckoos.

Common name: Channel-billed Cuckoo
Scientific name: Scythrops novaehollandiae
Approximate length: 58-65 cm
Date spotted: 22 September 2024 (spring)
Location: Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia