Thanks Julian, coming down to the water bath does suggest to me a more
“mature” fledgling, the very young ones are often very reluctant to show
themselves.
Yes, it’s the begging call that gives them away, and I suspect there are
many Koel fledglings out in the Canberra suburbs at the moment. This is
based on there now being 3 I’m aware of in Rivett, within a 10 minute walk (the
new one being much lighter particularly on the head and thus a younger bird),
and Barbara Allan now up to her 6th in Page.
Also interesting is the number of Red Wattlebirds in these two suburbs,
there have been at least 6 regularly close to my original fledgling, including
feeding young of their own, sometimes in the same tree!
My current theory about RWBs being hosts to Koels late in their long
breeding season (I’ve had RWB dy in my garden continuously since September, at
least 3 broods) is they get worn out and much more susceptible to
parasitation. This has been evident in my garden over the past few weeks,
where the RWB is much less aggressive than before Xmas, allowing the return of
many small species such as fairy-wrens, brown thornbills, scrubwrens,
silvereyes, spinebills etc.
Jack Holland
Frrom:
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2015 12:17 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Two dependent Koels
Jack’s request for info on breeding Koels arrived here within
hours of an email about one in Hawker, and right now there’s one begging in the
tree outside.
1) From Glenys in Hawker late yesterday afternoon – the bird
in the attached photo has been present in their garden for the last week, with a
call ‘like a young puppy barking’.
2) An hour ago I heard a call I’d never heard before,
something similar to a puppy barking, which has moved from the tree in front to
a tree at the back, now calling for about an hour. I’ve seen it once
inside a tree - enough stripes to see it is a large cuckoo. It is attended
by a number of Red Wattlebirds, or at least there are 4 uncharacteristically
hanging around, of which one or two seem to be feeding the squawking bird. I
can’t fathom the dynamics of the Wattlebirds, but 1 or 2 are flying off and
returning, and 2 seem to be just hanging around, racing,
perching.
Julian
www.flickr.com/photos/ozjulian/
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