"How do young cuckoos get together"
raises two issues. Are you asking about whilst young and still
dependent on their foster parents? My answer to that is - if they do so
at all (regularly), I'd suggest just random by seeing
potential suppliers of food passing by and latching onto them to get an
extra feed. Or maybe they recognise the calls of other baby cuckoos and
are attracted to them.
If you are referring to when they
are no longer babies but ready to breed. The answer is obvious: through
an instinctive recognition. The reason is also obvious and that is to
breed. To know what instinct feels like you would need to be the bird.
But I reckon I would be attracted to a suitable female human without
(or in this case in spite of) being raised with a sister.
Lastly and sorry but it has come up
again, one other point and Julian is far from the only one to get this
wrong. (Sean Dooley has admitted to me that to his great embarrassment,
he got it wrong in his big twitch book.) It is Horsfield's, NOT
Horsefields. Named in honour of Mr Horsfield (no e in the middle and
being possessive of just one Mr Horsfield, it needs the apostrophe).
Also for what it is worth, a hyphen in there too, to indicate that
"Bronze-Cuckoo" is a group name (otherwise for example "Little Bronze
Cuckoo" could mean it is a cuckoo with a little bit of bronze on it).
Philip
-----
Original Message -----
Sent:
Wednesday, December 24, 2008 10:33 PM
Subject:
[canberrabirds] How do young cuckoos get together? Also Goshawks.
It's been brought up before but I was interested to see in the old
Mugga Zoo on Saturday, two immature Horsefields Bronze Cuckoos
keeping company around the dam. My continuing question is how (and
why) do young cuckoos get together since they would have to be raised
in separate nests?
Incidentally for those following the nesting goshawks there, I was
disappointed to find that the nest was deserted and I couldn't see a
goshawk anywhere. Then while later doing something else, the bloody
Goshawk swooped me from behind yet again and so a) scared the pants off
me, and b) alerted me to their presence - which I would have missed
entirely otherwise. They have raised two young which at that stage
could fly well but still dependent.
Julian
