We have been down this track a few times. I have slightly enhanced the photo below. Certainly a young bronze-cuckoo. The head has the general appearance
of a youngish Shining, indeed appears to be typically such. The break in the barring of the underparts can occur in both species. Jack has previously stressed the rufous outer tail feathers of the Horsfield’s as a more reliable guide. Here, there may a
slight rufous tinge (3) but no more than the recurrent tone in the overall plumage when the colour is intensified.
I invite attention to the below image of a dependant Horsfield’s, younger than the above bird.
At that age the second bird has not acquired any barring (2), yet already has the beginning of the eye stripe that is missing in the first bird. The rufous
margin in the tail is already clearly visible (3). In my opinion the first bird is a young Shining, based on the plain head.
From: steven [
Sent: Thursday, 23 March 2017 9:01 AM
To: Philip Veerman; 'Nick Payne';
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Bird ID Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve
Hi Nick and Phil,
Thanks for your replies. Unfortunate about the possibility of disparaging remarks, but such is the nature of online communication. Yes Nick, I have been using Morcombe's compact guide (with
the maroon cover) for about 10 years now, but almost exclusively use the smartphone app version of that guide now. It's an excellent guide, but does not always cover both sexes and juveniles. And sometimes when one hasn't encountered a type of bird before,
one doesn't even know which group of birds to start with. The only cuckoo's I've come across before are Fan-tailed and Channel Billed.
Great info Phillip, the two toes forward and back is a great pointer which I'll keep in mind for future bird ID's. How about a Shining Bronze Cuckoo as opposed to a Horsfield's? It doesn't appear
to have the eye-stripe that Horsfield's has.
Once again, thanks heaps!
Steve.
