Hi Jill
Thank you for your message, and also thanks to Rob for his. I don?t seem to
have the original message from Rob, so perhaps you could forward this to
him, please, Jill.
The video clip was great; it was what I saw, although I think that I saw a
prolonged session of wing-shuffling from each of the four birds. They had
landed in the tree and remained there and seemed to be displaying to each
other. My bird watching experience is limited and I have never seem BFCS
doing their wing shuffling previously, so I can?t say any more.
Shirley and I heard (and then saw) our first channel-billed cuckoo of the
season yesterday (7 Nov). They apparently come down to the Centre from the
Top End over summer and return north for the cooler months. I?ll attach a
picture of a CBC perched in a tree in our front garden last year.
Regards
Graham
_____
From: Jill Dening
Sent: Wednesday, 5 November 2008 11:10 AM
To:
Cc: ; Graham Goodman
Subject: Black-faced cuckoo shrike
If anyone is confused about the behaviour to which Graham referred, my
friend captured it in her garden recently, and it is posted on her blog at
the following address. The video is down the page a bit.
http://sandystraitsandbeyond.blogspot.com/2008/09/birding-in-my-backyard.htm
l
Cheers,
Jill
Jill Dening
Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia
26° 51' 41"S 152° 56' 00"E
Rob Geraghty wrote:
--- On Tue, 11/4/08, Graham Goodman <>
<> wrote:
Last week (30 October) Shirley and I saw four black-faced
cuckoo shrikes in a tree near our home in Alice Springs.
The birds were excited, making plenty of noise and moving
about. They all appeared to be engaged in some
kind of display behaviour which involved extending their
necks and making a moderately harsh cawing noise. The
striking feature of the behaviour that all four birds
showed was the flapping of alternate wings about four
times each, which we saw repeated a number of times.
Hi Graham,
Black faced Cuckoo-Shrikes normally flip their wings when they land. Other
birds have particular habits when they land such as Crested Pigeons flipping
their tails. But the behaviour you describe sounds a bit more complicated.
Maybe it's a courtship ritual? I saw a pair of Black Swans a week ago
swimming back and forth in a fixed pose, mirroring each other's motion.
Luckily I even got a clip of video. I'm pretty sure that this is a
courtship ritual. Maybe you had a glimpse of the secret life of
Cuckoo-Shrikes? :)
Rob
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