birding-aus

Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo feeding its own young

To: Philip Veerman <>
Subject: Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo feeding its own young
From: brian fleming <>
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 16:31:06 +1000
Years ago, near Hattah I think, I observed a male Pallid Cuckoo feeding a very spotty and apparently immature bird - again on caterpillars. At the time I believed it was a young bird. Its plumage was, to the best of my recollection, grey with a lot of brownish markings. Certainly at the time I said "That's the spottiest cuckoo I've ever seen!" I was subsequently told that it would have been a male courtship-feeding a young female which had not yet lost her immature plumage. I wrote this up at the time for the 'Bird Observer', but can't remember when. But I have also been told that shortly before northward migration, cuckoo species feed young cuckoos of their own species.
Anthea Fleming

Philip Veerman wrote:

Helga has written back to me that mine was the only response. Which surprises me. So I 
thought I would forward it to BA. Actually HANZAB says: "males often observed 
feeding females in late winter or early spring." I now wonder if I got it wrong 
about how odd it may be that there already be new dependent young in SA in early October. 
In short I don't know the answer to Helga's question as both possibilities seem equally 
plausible.

Philip




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