Category Archives: Cuckoo
Koel cuckoo wearing the midnight
The Koel cuckoos are back! They migrate to our region of eastern Australia in spring, and go back up north in autumn. You know they’re there because of their loud call: coo-eee, coo-ee. It’s less often that you manage to see one, as they tend to stay high up in the trees and make use of the foliage to hide from other birds.
This male Koel spent a few minutes in a relatively exposed position on the street where I live:
The males are entirely black, with bright red eyes and a pale beak. Like other cuckoos, the females lay their eggs in the nests of other birds (mostly wattle birds and friar birds). The cuckoo then abandons the egg and leaves it up to the foster parents to bring up the chick.
My earlier posts name this bird as a Common Koel (Eudynamys scolopacea). I’ve discovered recently that Koel cuckoos were recently reclassified as Pacific Koels (Eudynamys orientalis).
Common name: Pacific Koel or Eastern Koel
Scientific name: Eudynamys orientalis (was scolopacea)
Approximate length: 45 cm
Date spotted: 19 January 2024 (summer)
Location: Allambie Heights (north of Sydney) New South Wales, Australia
Young Channel-billed Cuckoos fed by currawongs
What’s that caterwauling? It’s a couple of young Channel-billed Cuckoos, awaiting their food. Are the patient bringers of food the parents of the young birds? No, they’re Pied Currawongs. Because, like other parasitic cuckoos, Channel-billed Cuckoos lay their eggs in the nests of other birds and leave it entirely to the adoptive parents to care for the youngsters.
The other ongoing noise that you hear in this video are the Cicadas. It’s the season of noisy beetles and noisy birds!
This is the second time that I’ve seen two young cuckoos being fed by currawongs, instead of just one. Evidently it’s quite common for these birds to lay more than one egg in someone else’s nest.
Here’s a still photo of the young cuckoo. What a big baby. It’s far larger than the currawongs that are taking care of it.
Here’s the youngster flapping its wings to make sure its carers don’t miss it:
Channel-billed Cuckoo | Scythrops novaehollandiae | Approximate length: 58-65 cm
Pied Currawong | Strepera graculina | Approximate length: 45 cm
Date spotted: 28 December 2022 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’50.1″S 151°14’59.6″E
Channel-billed Cuckoo at Mount Annan
Today I went for a stroll at the Australian Botanic Garden in Mount Annan, to the south west of Sydney. It’s a good place for a walk, with well-maintained pathways and beautifully laid-out gardens.
This Channel-billed Cuckoo sat high on a bare tree branch, basking in the morning sun:
Channel-billed Cuckoos are large, imposing birds. I often think they look a bit creepy, with their red eyes and huge curved beaks. They’re migratory, coming down to the south east coast of Australia during the summer months. I heard the first arrivals of the season just a couple of weeks ago.
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: 16 October 2022 (spring)
Location: Mount Annan, New South Wales, Australia: 34°04’29.9″S 150°45’48.5″E
Baby Channel-billed Cuckoos fed by Currawongs
Walking along a shady path this morning, I heard a loud caterwauling from above. Two baby Channel-billed Cuckoos sat in the trees, yowling and shaking their wings. A Currawong arrived and fed a piece of meat to one of the cuckoos. Then another Currawong brought food to the second screeching youngster.
Like most cuckoos, Channel-billed Cuckoos lay their eggs in the nests of other birds and leave it to those other birds to hatch the egg and look after the growing chick. These particular cuckoos are very large (around 65 cm from head to tail) and so they need to pick the adoptive parents carefully. Currawongs are the usual choice.
This video shows one of the babies yowling and begging for food from its Currawong adoptive parent:
See how large the baby is in relation to the Currawong who’s looking after it! In the next video, one of the babies attempts to eat a largish morsel of meat that a Currawong has just fed to it:
I’ve never seen two babies together before. I wonder if they both came from the same nest, or if they found each other after leaving their nests?
Here’s a still picture of one of the baby cuckoos:
Being a youngster, its eyes are still light brown. The adult birds have fierce red eyes. They’re magnificently ugly birds.
In the next picture, one of the babies is pointing its beak at the sky, perhaps wondering where its next feed is coming from:
That picture gives a good view of the bird’s large beak and the markings on its back and tail.
One of the things you notice about Channel-billed Cuckoos is the supple way they move their neck and head. Here’s one of the babies leaning forward, in a pose that’s typical of these birds:
Oo-er, you probably wouldn’t want to bump into that bird one dark night. Here’s a picture of both baby cuckoos, looking at each other:
To finish off with, here’s a close up of one of the babies, head and neck only:
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: 18 December 2021 (summer)
Location: Manly-to-Spit Walk, Balgowlah, New South Wales, Australia: 33°48’00.9″S 151°15’54.9″E
Channel-billed Cuckoo laying egg in Currawong nest
This little episode happened in my garden today. It was interesting and exciting to watch!
A cacophany of Noisy Miners and Currawongs drew me out into the garden to see what was up. High in a gum tree were two Channel-billed Cuckoos, being harassed as usual by the other birds. I only managed to get one of the cuckoos into my camera sights. Luckily, it turned out to be the female bird.
Here’s the Channel-billed Cuckoo on the right, with a little Noisy Miner by its side:
In this short video, you can hear the Noisy Miners peeping incessantly. The cuckoo emits a loud, harsh caw and cedes ground:
Next, the local Currawongs join the attack. The musical, bell-like tones are the Currawongs. The cuckoo flinches and utters its harsh croak. Then I noticed that there’s a Currawong nest just below where the cuckoo is sitting!
Like most cuckoos, Channel-billed Cuckoos are parasitic. They don’t build nests of their own. Instead, they look for a likely host (a Currawong does very nicely, thank you) and lay an egg in the chosen host’s nest. The Currawongs take over all parental duties, looking after the egg along with those of their own, then feeding the baby bird.
Channel-billed Cuckoo chicks don’t turf the other chicks out of the nest (many types of cuckoo chicks do) but they do eat a lot, and grow significantly bigger than the Currawong chicks.
Having decided that the neighbourhood is reasonably quiet and safe for a bit, the cuckoo eyes the nest and starts its approach:
Quick as a flash, it hops up into the nest and lays its egg:
Below is a still picture of the Currawong’s nest. I’ll keep an eye on it, in case I can spot the Currawong and cuckoo chicks when they arrive:
Channel-billed Cuckoo | Scythrops novaehollandiae | Approximate length: 58-65 cm
Noisy Miner, also called Australian Miner | Manorina melanocephala | Approximate length: 26 cm
Pied Currawong | Strepera graculina | Approximate length: 45 cm
Date spotted: 10 October 2021 (spring)
Location: Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia
First Channel-billed Cuckoo of the season
It’s spring down under, and the cuckoos are back on the east coast of Australia. Last week I heard the calls of Koel Cuckoos and Channel-billed Cuckoos. Now I’ve seen my first one of the season: A Channel-billed Cuckoo sheltering from the local birds in a gum tree.
Channel-billed Cuckoos are large birds (approximately 60 cm long) with red eyes and a big beak. They often look a little scruffy, even ghoulish. The other birds seem to think so too, because they spend a lot of time dive-bombing the cuckoos and shouting at them. Usually the Noisy Miners (living up to their name) are the noisiest of the birds that strive to make the cuckoos feel unwelcome, but other birds play their part too.
This video shows the cuckoo enjoying the peace and quiet of a gum tree. At the start of the video, a Currawong swoops past in a threatening flyby. You don’t actually see the Currawong, but you can hear it and see the cuckoo flinch:
Here’s a photo showing the full length of the cuckoo, including its long, barred tail:
Here’s a view from the back:
Common name: Channel-billed Cuckoo
Scientific name: Scythrops novaehollandiae
Approximate length: 58-65 cm
Date spotted: 19 September 2021 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’33.8″S 151°15’17.8″E
A bonus bird: Just after the Channel-billed Cuckoo flew off, a kookaburra landed on a nearby branch:
Juvenile Channel-billed Cuckoo and female Koel Cuckoo
Today an unearthly caterwauling called my attention to a juvenile Channel-billed Cuckoo perched on a wire. It was crouched down, flapping its wings, and uttering harsh calls:
Even at this age, it’s a big bird. I’d guess it was already full size, at around 60 centimetres in length. A giant baby indeed. And one that needs a lot of feeding.
The youngster stretched out its neck and called even louder:
It peered up into the air expectantly:
I didn’t catch any pictures of the next stage, alas, because the bird flew to a leafy tree and was mostly hidden from view. I did see the dedicated proxy parent, a Currawong, feeding the youngster, accompanied by a frenzied gabbling noise from the demanding child.
Common name: Channel-billed Cuckoo
Scientific name: Scythrops novaehollandiae
Approximate length: 58-65 cm
Date spotted: 23 January 2021 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’06.4″S 151°14’52.6″E
In a nearby tree, a female Koel Cuckoo sat and watched the commotion:
Common name: Common Koel or Eastern Koel
Scientific name: Eudynamys scolopacea
Approximate length: 45 cm
Date spotted: 23 January 2021 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’06.4″S 151°14’52.6″E
Both Channel-billed and Koel cuckoos are parasitic cuckoos, which means that they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, and leave it up to those other birds to feed and care for the youngsters. Bot cuckoo types are migratory, coming down to this part of Australia for the warmer summer months, then heading to more northern countries for the winter.
Want to know more? I’ve posted some pictures and stories about previous encounters with cuckoos.
Channel-billed Cuckoo in our garden
It seems to me that the Channel-billed Cuckoos were late in arriving from their annual migration this year. Some people were pleased about that, as these birds make a tremendous noise in the early morning hours! But I was pleased when I eventually heard their raucous calls earlier this week.
Today, one dropped in on a tree in our garden. As usual, the other birds were harassing it.
Channel-billed Cuckoos are impressive birds. They have fierce red eyes and a large, hooked beak. Like many other types of cuckoos, they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds rather than making their own nests. They also leave the task of caring for the young birds to the substitute parents!
This particular cuckoo was a little wet and bedraggled. What with the rain and the harassment of the other birds, the cuckoo doesn’t seem to be enjoying life much.
Common name: Channel-billed Cuckoo
Scientific name: Scythrops novaehollandiae
Approximate length: 58-65 cm
Date spotted: 20 September 2020 (spring)
Location: Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia
Song of the Fan-tailed Cuckoo
Walking through the Aussie bush, I’m sometimes intrigued by a musical trill coming from the hidden depths of the forest. The sound starts high and drops rapidly down the scale to a lower pitch. Today, for the first time, I managed to spot the bird that makes this lovely noise: a Fan-tailed Cuckoo:
At first I thought it couldn’t be a cuckoo, because don’t all cuckoos leave for warmer climes when winter arrives on the Australian east coast? Evidently not. For the most part, Fan-tailed Cuckoos brave the cold weather, although those in Tasmania do move north into the mainland.
Here’s the cuckoo caught in mid trill:
Like other cuckoos, these birds lay their eggs in the nests of other species. Fan-tailed Cuckoos choose fairy-wrens and thornbills as their hosts. Such small little parents to raise a cuckoo!
Here’s another shot of the bird, this time with its beak closed:
This particular bird has a lovely rich coloring. Other photos I’ve seen show less orange in the chest feathers, and a lighter grey on the head and back.
Singing again:
Fan-tailed Cuckoos feed on insects. Typical behaviour is to sit high up on a branch then swoop down when a meal crawls or flutters into view. Here’s a non-zoomed-in view of the bird:
Common name: Fan-tailed Cuckoo
Scientific name: Cacomantis flabelliformis
Approximate length: 26 cm
Date spotted: 13 June 2020 (winter)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’29.5″S 151°14’46.3″E
Young Channel-billed Cuckoo fed by a currawong
A plaintive caterwauling drew my attention to the treetops this morning. A large bird sat high in a tree, calling and flapping its wings. It was a juvenile Channel-billed Cuckoo, waiting to be fed. As I watched, the adoptive parent arrived: a currawong. The currawong stuffed some food down the baby’s throat:
The baby cuckoo is already larger than its adoptive parent. Channel-billed Cuckoos are very large birds. In fact, they’re the largest of all parasitic birds. The body of the adult is more than half a metre long, and the wingspan is almost a metre. As the term parasitic implies, the cuckoo parents lay their eggs in the nests of other birds—in this case, a currawong’s nest—and the hapless host then raises the cuckoo chick.
In the next video, the young cuckoo is more restful, which gives you a chance to see its colouring. The very young birds have yellowish and brown colouring, whereas adults are light grey and dark grey. This youngster is close to adult colouring, but you can still see yellow here and there. The chirping noise that you hear throughout is the cicada beetles that rule the bush at this time of year.
Near the start of the video, the bird takes a sudden dislike to a dead twig nearby. Who knows why. Perhaps the bird is bored. Then a Noisy Miner arrives to alleviate the boredom. Noisy Miners, also known as Australian Miners, are noisy, as you may have guessed. They broadcast an alert whenever anything unusual appears in their territory. The young cuckoo reacts with alarm. In the nick of time, the host currawong arrives with another tasty treat.
I noticed that the currawong retreats hastily after delivering each morsel of food, and the cuckoo gives chase. I’d probably retreat too if my baby were that size!
Here’s a still photo of the young cuckoo. It’s eyes have not yet reached the dramatic red of the adult Channel-billed Cuckoo:
Bits of yellow and brown are still visible in the feathers, but this young ‘un has nearly attained the grey colouring of the adult.
The next photo gives a good view of the youngster’s tail, which looks to be fully developed. I saw the bird flying from tree to tree, and it did a very good job of it. It will need its flying skills in a few weeks’ time, as these cuckoos are migratory. They come down the eastern coast of Australia in spring, around September, then fly back up north to Indonesia and other islands around March.
To see more pics and videos of these cuckoos, and to hear the horrendous noise the adults make, check out my list of cuckoo posts.
Common name: Channel-billed Cuckoo
Scientific name: Scythrops novaehollandiae
Approximate length: 58-65 cm
Date spotted: 25 January 2020 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’59.6″S 151°15’15.5″E
Sydney Birder 