John, very interesting, and well worth another note for CBN when it's over.
Co-incidentally Geoffrey Dabb drew my attention to the following post on
birding-aus by Chris King a few days ago.
“Alan Morris posted this response recently to a Facebook photo of a koel, and I
confirmed with him that its ok to post it.
'The parent Koels usually re-connect with their young at this time when they
wean them off the largely insect diet of the Wattlebird and Friarbird hosts and
onto the fruit diet of figs, berries, cherry tomatoes and other fruits! They
then depart northwards with their families. Channel-billed Cuckoos do the
same.' Alan added to me that HANZAB has this info. However there are
observations of small flocks of CBCuckoos, up to 15 birds migrating north and
south in NSW! Small flocks of 6-9 birds is more typical.”
As this extends well beyond the observations we have made so far in Canberra,
and because I'm unable to find this information in HANZAB, I have approached
Alan Morris, who is a very highly regarded birder, for more details and
hopefully some references. I'll let you know his response.
Regards
Jack Holland
-----Original Message-----
From: Canberrabirds <> On
Behalf Of john harris via Canberrabirds
Sent: Friday, 15 January 2021 2:22 PM
To: chatline <>
Subject: Koel interactions
I am pleased to be able to report that the interaction between a juvenile Koel
and an adult male Koel behind my house in Nicholls this year confirms my
observations last year of the an adult male Koel purposefully interacting with
a juvenile Koel. The major difference this year is that the Koel breeding was
earlier and I suspect that this was due to the Wattlebirds breeding earlier
because of the good spring last year. The fruit on the plum and elderberry
trees in my backyard was not yet ripe when the juvenile first appeared,
recognisable by its loud ‘cheeping’, but another consequence of the early
spring rain was that ornamental prunus tress in other people’s yards were
fruiting early and plentifully. The juvenile Koel ate the fruit on the
ornamental trees a few doors down from me. The male Koel which had been
‘wirrawirraing’ behind our houses for months took up residence in the eucalypts
behind the house with the ornamental plums. I was unable to creep up on the
juvenile and so whenever I approached it, it flew to the tree where the male
was. This week my elderberries and plums have started to ripen. The ornamental
plums have virtually finished so now the juvenile Koel is eating my
elderberries. The male has moved to a Eucalypt behind my house in order to keep
close contact and the juvenile flies there when disturbed.
This environment behind Kangaroo Close along Ginninderra Creek has obviously
become a desirable Koel habitat. There is plenty of cover along the creek or
over the creek on Percival Hill while there is ample fruit hanging over
people’s back fences. An important theory is that the male Koel connect with
the juveniles to eventually guide them back north. Of course I cannot prove
that this is the same male as last year but I do ask ‘Why not?'
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