Years ago, near Hattah I think, I observed a male Pallid Cuckoo feeding
a very spotty and apparently immature bird - again on caterpillars. At
the time I believed it was a young bird.
Its plumage was, to the best of my recollection, grey with a lot of
brownish markings. Certainly at the time I said "That's the spottiest
cuckoo I've ever seen!"
I was subsequently told that it would have been a male courtship-feeding
a young female which had not yet lost her immature plumage. I wrote
this up at the time for the 'Bird Observer', but can't remember when.
But I have also been told that shortly before northward migration,
cuckoo species feed young cuckoos of their own species.
Anthea Fleming
Philip Veerman wrote:
Helga has written back to me that mine was the only response. Which surprises me. So I
thought I would forward it to BA. Actually HANZAB says: "males often observed
feeding females in late winter or early spring." I now wonder if I got it wrong
about how odd it may be that there already be new dependent young in SA in early October.
In short I don't know the answer to Helga's question as both possibilities seem equally
plausible.
Philip
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