The wiki entry that "Brood Parasitic Cuckoos do not develop brood patches" is clearly wrong, as Shining Bronze-Cuckoos and Horsfield's are both brood parasites and do not incubate their eggs, but have brood patches.
If anyone knows how to correct it, please do! … or before you know it we'll have government policy based on this erroneous "wiki-fact"
John
From: Geoffrey
Dabb [
Sent: Sunday, 3 November 2013 5:39 PM
To:
Subject: FW: [canberrabirds] Brood patches are evidentially found on Shining Bronze-Cuckoos despite not being required
2 snips from Wiki. Some cuckoos incubate their own eggs so issue might depend on how close to those cuckoos is the relevant parasitic cuckoo
From: John Brown
Sent: Sunday, 3 November 2013 4:58 PM
To: 'COG_Mailing_List'
Subject: [canberrabirds] Brood patches are evidentially found on Shining Bronze-Cuckoos despite not being required
Just in case anyone remembers Philip raising the excellent question about whether brood parasites such as Shining Bronze-Cuckoos really form brood patches. Well, I don't have ready access to HANZAB so It's a
bit hard to check. However, the Bander's Aid states brood patches found on Shining-Bronze-cuckoos, Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoos, and Black-eared Cuckoos at least. Apart from that I check with the A-Class bander who banded the bird and he confirmed that the bird
definitely had a brood patch (i.e. there hadn't been a clerical error) and that he is "90%" sure it was also gravid (pregnant with egg).
So despite getting some other bird to brood on their eggs, it appears that the brood patch has lingered on in these cuckoos, and hence that the characteristic has not been extinguished by evolution in these species
even though it is no longer required.
John
From: Philip
Veerman
Sent: Wednesday, 30 October 2013 6:08 PM
To: John Brown; 'COG_Mailing_List'
Subject: Pilotbird breeding records?
Pilotbirds are residents so surely they must breed here. The COG Atlas (now very old) has a mention of one nest building from 1988. Presumably
they are hard to find breeding. I'm intrigued about "FYI, brood patches were also found on: Shining Bronze-Cuckoo". Do brood parasites also form this? I would have thought this feature would have been deleted over time.
-----Original Message-----From: John Brown
Sent: Wednesday, 30 October 2013 4:59 PM To:
COG_Mailing_List Subject:
[canberrabirds] Pilotbird breeding records?
At New Chum Road mist netting which happened to coincide with the Blitz, we netted a pilotbird with a brood patch. There was some speculation about whether or not there were records of pilotbirds breeding in the ACT?
FYI, brood patches were also found on:
Shining Bronze-cuckoo
White-browed Scrubwren
Brown Thornbill
Striated Thornnbill
Eastern Spinebill
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Crescent Honeyeater
White-napped Honeyeater
Golden Whistler
Eastern Yellow Robin
Bassian Thrush
John
