An Oriental Cuckoo dropped into a tree at home this-afternoon - head height
from the verandah. Great views including the yellow eye-ring and the yellow
base to the lower mandible. And of course, the strikingly barred underparts
and the characteristic white crescent on the 'shoulder' of the closed wing
that so many cuckoos show. What is the correct name for those feathers? The
female Golden Whistler shares it too.
I tried to get on with what I should have been doing, but sort of watched it
on and off for a couple of hours as it flitted between various trees,
dropping frequently to the ground to feed.
They turn up in the valley from time to time, and we've had them at Abberton
in the past, but the somewhat distant past - February 1989, and then several
birds, including an hepatic, which lived in the garden throughout March,
April and May 1990.
But this is our first ever December Oriental Cuckoo.
Bill Jolly
"Abberton",
Lockyer Valley, Queensland.
Visit our website at http://www.abberton.org
Email:
Ph: (+61) 7 4697 6111 Fax: (+61) 7 4697 6056
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