Shining bronze-cuckoos and female frogmouth

[martin butterfield <>]

Three Shining bronze-cuckoos were chasing each other around a small wattle tree in my GBS site this morning.  They then moved to another clump of mixed shrubs, much to the alarm of the Weebills lurking therein.  Shining Bronze-Cuckoos have been much commoner this spring than the last several: HANZAB does note they prefer damper habitats than Horsfields b-c.

I found these birds while searching for the female of the local pair of Frogmouths who was not in any of her usual perches (these days most commonly about 5m from the nest, but up to 40m is occasional).  I eventually found her on an Acacia branch some 60m from the nest.    This is a roost which I have only found them on in the past when they are travelling around with the juveniles.  However it is close to a dam full of noisy frogs so perhaps she was too full to fly all the way back towards the nest?

Martin