Bruce
The only record I have of Horsfield's Bronze-cuckoo feeding on the ground
was an observation made on the 14/10/00 of a single bird ' foraging on the
ground for approx. 2 min before returning to roadside trees to continue
foraging '. This was on Golds Scrub Lane, Samsonvale, SEQld.
The ground where it was feeding was a mown strip of grass along roadside.
Hope this is of interest
Gavin
Petrie SE Qld
-
---- Original Message -----
From: bruce Cox <>
To: Birding-aus <>
Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2002 3:02 PM
Subject: Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoos.
> Hi Everyone,
>
> Earlier this week John Duranti, Colin Scouler and I stayed for a couple of
> nights at a cottage in the Capertee Valley about 150 K. west of Sydney.
The
> birding was fairly quiet as there was very little flowering in the valley.
>
> I was taken by the behaviour of two Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoos feeding on
> the ground for appreciable periods of time. The birds were taking black
> grubs (caterpillars?) from no more than 3 cm. above the ground.The grubs
> were about the same size as the birds bill and one bird I watched from
about
> 10 m. was taking one every 10 to 30 seconds. Between grubs the bird
adopted
> an erect, stretched neck posture, looking for possible threats. This
posture
> reminded me of a Brown treecreeper's on ground posture. Both birds
continued
> ground feeding until I flushed them. When I moved on they returned to the
> ground. The area where they were feeding was a grazed gully bottom paddock
> with short cropped grass, low herbs (attracting Turquoise Parrots) and
some
> moss. There was also a higher, largely dead weed which apparently
harboured
> the grubs as a variety of birds were feeding where it was prevalent.
(Hooded
> Robins, Jacky Winters, Willy Wagtail and Superb Fairy-wrens.)
>
> Last July we again stayed on the same property and then observed a HBC
> acting as above in the same gully. In January 1995 I observed two HBC
ground
> feeding on a swamp verge at Lake Wyangan just north of Griffith, NSW.
>
> Possibly this is a normal practice for Horsfields, although none of my
books
> mention it, the closest is Pizzey and Knight "forages low". The Readers
> Digest book refers to "perch and pounce" while Pizzey and Doyle says
"feeds
> in foliage, perches watchfully on overhead wires fences."
>
> Has anyone observed this behaviour?
>
> Bruce.
>
> Bruce Cox.
> 48 Rangers Retreat Rd. Frenchs Forest.
> Sydney. 2086. Australia.
> Phone:--02 9451 5394.
>
>
>
> Birding-Aus is on the Web at
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>
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