Another unusual Campephagid.
In recent years, I have blitzed at and around Newline
Paddock. Last year, when I followed two Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes, they
were associating with a bird that I did not recognise at first and turned out to
be a Cicadabird. I got long and excellent views.
Today’s effort had me following another BFCS. I watched
it in a tree for a short while until it flew off. As I was moving the
binos off the tree, I noticed there was another bird there. I got a rather
short view of it before it too flew (apparently after the BFCS). This bird
was a Cuckoo-shrike but it seemed to have a very black head and breast –
noticeably more black that the BFCS and the borders of the black on the breast
were very ragged. The bird looked very much like a dark morph
White-bellied CS. I felt fairly comfortable reporting this until I
consulted my books and discovered that a WBCS has never been seen in Canberra in
October, so it would be a rather unusual sighting. I also cannot recall
which morph is more common in Canberra. Is it the dark or light (I last
saw a light morph on Red Hill)?
Can someone tell me which morph is more
common and perhaps whether I might have just seen an unusually black individual
BFCS? Do they occur? All the ones I have seen have had neat black
regions clearly bordered and not extending down the breast.
David Rosalky
