Interesting. Exactly a year ago a similar bird was shown- and briefly discussed - on this chatline. The 2 birds are show below.
Both appear to be juveniles or sub-adult, from the overall brownish colouration, the main difference being the faintly barred underparts on this week’s bird. Now, according to HANZAB on the JUV plumages: BRUSH – ‘[underparts] boldly marked throughout : breast, broadly and irregularly barred or mottled by irregular dark-brown or black-brown barring; belly flanks and vent more sparsely and regularly barred dark-brown to black-brown …’ FAN-TAILED - ‘Upper breast like foreneck: cream to white faintly marked by broad and irregular grey-brown bars that do not contrast strongly. Lower breast, belly, vent and flanks similar but with whiter ground-colour and denser paler-brown barring’. However, the orbital ring for the BRUSH juv is given as ‘narrower than in adult, dark and dirty grey’; and for the FAN-TAILED ‘pale-yellow; at first very narrow and inconspicuous with green or grey tinge; later as adult’ [which is ‘wide contrasting pale yellow to bright yellow, sometimes with orange tinge’].
Both birds here have a conspicuously yellowish orbital ring, although the r/hand bird is in shade. My guess is that both birds are sub-adult FAN-TAILED, the left-hand bird being closer to adult. The HANZAB illustrations are consistent with that. I don’t know how the moult progresses but they might be from the previous nesting season.
From: Steve Holliday [
Sent: Saturday, 7 December 2013 9:01 AM
To: 'Canberrabirds'
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Juvenile Brush Cuckoo?
Brush Cuckoo also has a rare barred morph. If I recall correctly it has only been recorded in females. Another possibility for this bird.
From: Philip Veerman
Sent: Friday, 6 December 2013 9:15 PM
To: 'Rob Geraghty'; 'Canberrabirds'
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Juvenile Brush Cuckoo?
I would agree with that. A view of upperparts is the better to tell apart from juv Fantailed Cuckoo. The tail shape & strong markings fits juvenile Brush Cuckoo better than juv Fantailed Cuckoo. I wonder if that is a this spring young already.
-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Geraghty [m("yahoo.com","the_harper");">]
Sent: Friday, 6 December 2013 8:51 PM
To: Canberrabirds
Subject: [canberrabirds] Juvenile Brush Cuckoo?
I saw this Cuckoo this evening at Farrer Ridge. I think it's a juvenile Brush Cuckoo?
