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Channel-billed Cuckoo records from south-east Queensland

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Subject: Channel-billed Cuckoo records from south-east Queensland
From: Trevor Quested <>
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2011 12:02:35 +1000
I saw a flock of 30+ Channel-billed Cuckoos over Cania Gorge National Park, Qld 
on Christmas Day  2005. I observed a flock of 50+ Channel-billed Cuckoos in a 
lone fig tree on a hilltop near the park entrance of Goodnight Scrub National 
Park on 19th Feb 2006. The birds looked to be gathering for migration but I 
can’t prove that.

I spoke to Eric Zillmann, the patron of our Bundy BOC about his experiences 
with Channel-billed Cuckoos. His observations of this species date back to the 
30s around the Gin Gin area. When out studying owls he observed Channel-billed 
Cuckoos around a Torresian Crow’s nest in the pale evening sky around 8pm.  One 
came into the nest calling loudly and drew the crow off and the female bird 
calling softly nearby, slipped into the nest and laid the egg or eggs.

He sent his observations to Alec Chisholm but never found out if they were 
published.  Eric saw 2 Channel-billed Cuckoo chicks being raised by crows in 
the Wallaville area.

In 1980 he saw 3 Channel-billed Cuckoo chicks being raised in a crow’s nest and 
noted they were all at different ages meaning the eggs were laid at separate 
times.

The first chick to leave the nest was fed along the creek for three days before 
the second chick left the nest.  The second cuckoo chick was a good 80 yards 
from the first chick. The third was still in the nest.  Feeding three birds 
must have driven the crows to a point of insanity Eric noted.  A week later all 
Channel-billed Cuckoo chicks were following their foster parents.

The cuckoos were raised in a 200 acre paddock of sclerophyll forest with a 
creek flowing through it. By the first week in March Channel-billed Cuckoos 
commence gathering in numbers. Harassment by the Torresian Crows  had ceased. 
By the second week in March all Channel-billed Cuckoos had left the Gin Gin 
Wallaville district Eric observed.

Trevor Quested 

Bundaberg QLD
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