G'day all
Re my 1/5/04 posting of a pair of Pheasant Coucals breeding several
times 10 foot off the ground in a vine covered tree.
Golo Maurer at Darwin contacted me and asked:-
"How dense was the grass at the time when the coucals bred in the
tree? My suspicion is that this might be the determining factor."
He was spot on. At the first breeding the grasses in the adjacent
river bed
had been burnt out. But the birds have decided to continue using the
nest.
Golo's PhD project is
" Ecology and Evolution of sex role reversal in the pheasant coucal
(Centropus phasianinus)"
Refer http://www.anu.edu.au/BoZo/Golo/
It states "In coucals males incubate the eggs and provide most
parental
care and females compete with each other to gain access to males".
... hmmm
Regards
Bob Forsyth, Mount Isa, NW Qld.
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