birding-aus
re Lorne's posting of his reasons for ID-ing his Oriental Cuckoo.
Lorne's point 5 strikes a chord for me. The nearest relative to the Oriental
Cuckoo is I suppose Cuculus canorus, the archetypal cuckoo that yells cuckoo
all through the European summer.
It's true that a distant C.canorus crossing an open field can very easily be
mistaken in flight and silhouette for a European Kestrel or Hobby. Not
really as dashing or scything as a Hobby, but certainly on one or two
occasions perhaps at the end of a long day's birding, enthusiasm would beat
judgement from the start, and you'd hear yourself excitedly saying "Hobb...
cuckoo over there!"
Just a bit of subjective stuff in support of Lorne's argument.
I posted something a few days ago about hepatics we have had here, and
received a detailed and very informative response from Danny Rogers who is
writing up cuckoos for the Handbook. It's well worth sharing, and with his
permission, I will be posting a summary of some of the points he has made
about plumage separation of female hepatics and young Orientals.
But that will have to wait; were off to North Queensland this afternoon, and
cyber birding is on hold for a week or so while we have a spell in the real
world.
Bill Jolly
"Abberton"
Helidon, Qld
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