A Pallid Cuckoo, a Fan-tailed Cuckoo and an Olive-backed Oriole were all
feeding on what I assume was the same species of caterpillar at Mulligans
Flat yesterday.
Regards
Frank
_________________________________________________________________
Steve Holliday wrote:
Cuckoos are known to regularly eat toxic/hairy caterpillars which most other
birds won't touch. Don't know how they manage this, Matin's suggestions are
as good as any I can think of.
The caterpillars Paul mentioned are presumably the same species as the ones
which are in quite large numbers near our place at the moment. I think they
are possibly Pasture Day Moth (Apina callisto) caterpillars. The adults are
nicely patterned, and fly in the day during late autumn, they were abundant
at Gooroo and Mulligans last April-May. The caterpillars survive winter and
then feed up, pupate underground over summer and emerge the following
autumn. Food plants include quite a range of weedy species including
Capeweed.
see http://linus.socs.uts.edu.au/~don/larvae/agar/callist.html
Of course they may be something else entirely, in which case ignore
everything I've just written!
cheers
Steve
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