In our Engadine garden ( the southern edge of Sydney) we have a pair of
young Channel-Billed Cuckoos being bred and fed by a Pied Currawong. The
birds are growing rapidly and are beginning to look like adult birds but are
still very demanding and the Pied Currawong is a most active parent indeed.
I note that the sources say there might be more than one female bird lay
eggs in the same host nest. Has anyone on this list any special experience
of this?
Meanwhile, on 24th December 2002 we visited Sea Acres Nature Reserve in Port
Macquarie and found a very fat juvenile Fan Tailed Cuckoo being fed by two
White Browed Scrub Wrens. The size differential was at least 1:5. Those
birds were so busy as their baby demanded so much!
I am wondering if anyone on this list has actually witnessed how the cuckoo
lays its egg in the host nest. The nest of the White Browed Scrub Wren has a
side entrance and is complete with a verandah. It must be a most complex
action.
Brian Everingham
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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