birding-aus RFI:Juvenile Bronze-Cuckoos

[Phil Gregory <>]

Maybe David James or others can help here?
January 9 gave us a  puzzling juvenile Chrysococcyx cuckoo
along a creek near Mareeba, perched high in a Casuarina in bright sunlight.
It
had quite bright pale yellow underparts, a dusky wash across the chin and
throat that merged in to the yellow of the underparts, no supercilium or
eye stripe, a pale eye ring and what seemed to be grey-brown upperparts.
There were a few diffuse greyish vertical bars on the flanks. The outer
tail feathers looked pale and there were spots on some of the inner ones,
but the tail was very short as the bird was so young. The eye appeared
dark, as did the bill. It gave a quiet high pitched but penetrating monosyllabic
call.
I have seen Little BronzeCuckoo out here in the drier country,
but the juvenile plumages don't seem to be well described for either this
or Gould's Bronze-Cuckoo. Likely hosts in the same vicinity were
Fairy
and Large-billed Gerygones, but none visited the bird whilst we
were there. The yellow underparts were very striking and very puzzling.
Advice anyone?
Phil Gregory