Hi All,
On the 2nd Feb I photographed an Indian Cuckoo /Cuculus micropterus/
near the quarantine station on West Island, Cocos Islands. At the time
it was recognised as significant but given some superficial similarities
to Oriental Cuckoo I had to wait until I could check references and
trawl through my collection of Oriental Cuckoo images before I was
confident of the ID. Indian Cuckoo has never before been reported from
Australia or its territories. Many thanks to Jeff Davies and Danny
Rogers for their opinions on the ID and for ongoing discussion regarding
the bird's plumage and the subspecies/form that it belongs to. At this
stage we are confident it is one of the migrant forms based on size and
structure but much is yet to be resolved.
A few pics of the bird are here:
http://www.pbase.com/wildlifeimages/indian_cuckoo
Features that identify the bird as an Indian Cuckoo include:
1) the broad dark terminal tail band that is much broader than in
Oriental Cuckoo (or the near identical Himalayan Cuckoo). Oriental
Cuckoos show a dark terminal tail band that is always quite narrow in
grey birds and only slightly broader in hepatic birds.
2) Rather compact, as opposed to elongated, structure. That is while the
bird is about the same size as an Oriental Cuckoo it does not show the
elongated rear end (wings and tail) of that species.
3) A proportionally large head.
4) Broad buff tips to retained juvenile tertials (broader than one would
expect in juv Oriental Cuckoo).
5) Pale spots in the central tail feathers (T1) limited to white shaft
streaks. This feature appears to be common in Indian Cuckoo but rare in
Oriental Cuckoo.
6) Even allowing for mottled plumage on the head, there seems to be
rather more contrast between a pale head and dark dorsum than one would
expect for Oriental Cuckoo.
It doesn't appear that this bird was ever twitchable as Adrian Boyle,
George Swann and I revisited the site on a number of subsequent days but
were never able to relocate it.
I'll post a complete trip report in the next day or so.
Cheers,
Rohan
--
Rohan Clarke
www.wildlifeimages.com.au
Latest updates
http://www.pbase.com/wildlifeimages/root&view=recent
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
