At least one bird still present today. Two sightings, but possibly the same
bird. The one I saw was barred.
Cheers Steve Murray
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Rod Gardner
Sent: Tuesday, 16 December 2008 5:47 PM
To:
Subject: Oriental Cuckoo
Associate Professor Rod Gardner
There was an unusual plumaged Oriental Cuckoo at Anstead Bush Reserve on
Sunday - worth passing on because of two points. It had very little barring
on the underside, and it called.
I took about two minutes of video footage, but the bird was mostly looking
away, so I didn't get good views of the underside. It flew from one spot to
another, before flying off, and the best views of the underside are as it
flew from its perches, and I have some reasonable video grabs. There's some
barring on the undertail coverts and on the side of the breast at the base
of the wings, but most of the lower breast and belly was an unmarked
buffish colour. The underwing pattern and upperparts and leg and bill
colour were all typical of Oriental Cuckoo.
Paul Walbridge has seen a couple of the video grabs, as has John Young.
Paul says he's seen a similar bird at Lawn Hill, and John says he's seen
similar birds around Ingham. It seems most likely to have been a young
female. None of the literature I've read talks about lack of barring, not
even HANZAB.
Amazingly, there was a second Oriental Cuckoo in another part of the Bush
Reserve, the third and fourth ones I've seen here this year.
The other unusual thing was that the bird called - it had a kind of soft
barking quality, two notes on the same pitch less than a second apart,
which sounds most like the 'hoop hoop-hoop' call described in HANZAB. OCs
rarely call in Australia.
These birds are probably quite mobile, but if anyone wants to try for them,
Anstead Bush Reserve is in the west of Brisbane, west of Kenmore, at the
corner of Mount Crosby Road and Hawkesbury Road. There's a car park about
100m south of the junction on Hawkesbury Road. The unusual bird was near
the old quarry at the river, and the second bird was right in the middle of
the reserve, about 250 up the third track (the westernmost) on the south
side of picnic area by the car park.
I can also send the video grabs if anyone is interested.
Rod
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