Pallid Cuckoo juvenile again

["Esme Barker & Bruce Ramsay" <>]

Philip,

My copy (first revise of second edition, 1988) of the Readers Digest book says the same - "Juveniles strongly streaked dark brown and white ...."

 

Interestingly, none of the field guides that I have looked at (Slater, Simpson and Day, Morcombe, Pizzey and Knight) seems to provide an illustration of a juvenile Pallid Cuckoo (as opposed to an immature). I can't remember for sure, but I think only Pizzey and Knight actually draws a descriptive distinction between juvenile and immature. That field guide (P&K, 7th ed) says "Juvenile (not illustrated) ... plumage untidily variegated black and white ..." which seems to me to match the photos of the juvenile Pallids which have been posted here in the past week or so. None of the descriptions of juvenile or immatures of the other possible cuckoo species in ACT has "black and white" - they are brown or brown streaked buff.

 

So my money is also with Pallid Cuckoo rather than Fan-tailed or Brush.

 

Bruce Ramsay