Fan-tailed Cuckoo doesn't like Pallid Cuckoo

[jude hopwood <>]

At Currawang, North-East of the ACT on the grid, Fan-tailed Cuckoo heard for the first time in the last ten years (since this old sheep paddock was built on by us).  Heard irregularly over last two weeks, calls becoming increasingly from our new (ten-year old) plantings.  Not sighted until yesterday.

 

Pallid cuckoo arrived just before.  Not sighted last year but every year before that since 2001.  Very easy about our presence, alighting on paddock and yard fencing as well as power lines near the house within a few metres of us.  Called regularly until about a week ago, when he became much less likely to call although clearly present.

 

Yesterday, around midday, two Fan-tails, after a lot of fussing in shrubbery, actively saw Pallid cuckoo off, disappearing over the hill in their enthusiasm to see him gone.  This all happened in clear view, with an interested audience of SC cockatoos and galahs, but all small birds had made themselves invisible.  A lot of noise from the fairy wrens shortly thereafter.

 

Jude Hopwood