As Jack has noted, the Horsfield’s
Bronze-Cuckoo does have a call very similar to that of the Australian Pipit.
This call is very obvious when I have seen H B-C in central Australia when
the birds are not breeding. I have found several species of cuckoo in large
numbers in the centre during the “non-breeding” (??) season. The
Fan-tailed Cuckoo also has another call other than the familiar “postman’s
whistle” downward trill. It is hard to put into words but sounds
something like a rather mournful “whaa whaaaarrr”, the second note
rising (at least to my ears and from memory) slightly towards the end.
And yes, I agree with everyone’s
comments, it was a very enjoyable and informative meeting on Wednesday evening.
Mark
From:
Jack and Andrea Holland [
Sent: Friday, 11 September 2009
9:00 AM
To: martin butterfield; COG List
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds]
Pallid cuckoo calls
To make matters more complicated, in my experience all the 5
local cuckoos can make calls different from the best known, particularly
when they are responding to each other. A recent example is the two
Horsfield's Bronze-cuckoos currently in my local patch of NW Cooleman
Ridge/Narrabundah Hill. A few weeks ago they were making very house
sparrow-like calls when on exposed perches a 100 m or so apart. Last
weekend while on a fence within cms of each other the calling was a very
pipit like "chirrup", one that I've heard a number of times before
(and is mentioned in Pizzey and Knight). In both cases I was originally
alerted by the "traditional" call.
So the moral of the story is if you see and hear what you
think may be a pipit on a fence, have a closer look. The very
hunched posture of cuckoos (they sit right on the wires with no/little leg
showing) is another clue.
