John, thank you for this interesting posting.
I may be misinterpreting your message, but it is most unlikely that the male Koel would be feeding the fledgling since the species is a brood parasite (it’s a cuckoo). It’s most likely that the Red Wattlebird
you have seen around is the host, as it has been for all but a couple of the 300+ fledglings in the ACT that I’m aware of.
You have, however, made a very important observation of an adult male associating/interacting with a fledgling, something for which there is now quite a bit of evidence as included in my summaries of the past
seasons written up in CBN (see for example
http://canberrabirds.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/CBN-43-3-final.pdf ). There are also examples of other birds interacting with fledglings, including the Pied Currawong.
Regards
Jack Holland
From: John Harris <>
Sent: Saturday, 18 January 2020 5:02 PM
To: chatline <>
Subject: [canberrabirds] Juvenile.Koel
A juvenile koel has been hanging around my backyard and nearby trees for the past three days. It gives away its location by its constant cheep – cheep -cheeping. I have seen a male, presumably the parent,
nearby and in my heavily-laden plum trees which I take to be the reason they hang about here. I have seen this male on the branch beside the juvenile although I have not actually seen him feeding it. I presume he does.
Their presence creates great interest among other birds, red wattle birds, etc. Even the currawongs are interested for some reason.
