This morning I spotted a bird I hadn’t seen before. What’s more, it was at one of my favourite stomping grounds: Manly Dam. A few minutes after seeing the bird, I showed my photos to another bush walker. He identified the bird as a Shining Bronze-Cuckoo. I think he’s right.

The bird was quite small, with glowing green-blue wings and tail. Its face was light grey and white, and its front had horizontal brown barring on white:

This looks like a juvenile bird, as the barring is not yet as well-defined as in the adults.

Due to the less well-defined barring, I did wonder if this was a Horsefield’s Bronze-Cuckoo. But this bird doesn’t have the dark line through the eye that’s characteristic of Horsefield’s Bronze-Cuckoos, and the white tips of the tail feathers are hidden at rest, while in the Horsefield’s Bronze-Cuckoo the white tips are visible.

Like most other cuckoos, Shining Bronze-Cuckoos don’t build nests. Instead, they lay their eggs in the nest of another bird species and leave the other species to raise their young. Shining Bronze-Cuckoos usually choose the nests of thornbills, gerygones, scrubwrens, or fairy-wrens. There were several Variegated Fairy-wrens in the same area as this cuckoo. I wonder if some of them were the adoptive parents!

Common name: Shining Bronze-Cuckoo
Scientific name: Chrysococcyx lucidis
Length: 16-18 cm
Date spotted: 25 February 2026 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’38.8″S 151°14’49.0″E