G'day Tom,
I thought it best to answer your enquiry on the forum, I hope you don't
mind, because this issue is a perennial one not well covered in books apart
from HANZAB so I suspect there are a few people out there scratching their
heads on this.
Pallid Cuckoo is now placed in the genus Cacomantis along with Fan-tailed
and Brush Cuckoos which both have rufous juveniles, this is not the case
with Pallid though. Fresh Pallid juveniles are consistantly a distinctive,
somewhat boldly black and white bird with broad white fringes of the central
wing coverts forming a white panel on the folded wing, the rest of the bird
being variously spangled with broad white fringes and notches, they always
look like this. It lacks the bold yellow eye-ring of adults but has a fleshy
yellow gape not present on adults. Pallid females on the other hand are
quite variable, at their most extreme they have rufous tones to broad
notches on wing feathers and tail as well as on collar and back of head, a
dark crown and scalloping in a collar that is often complete to the central
breast. The females also have the typical adult bright yellow eye-ring but
never a yellow gape. Female Pallid Cuckoos have been mislabeled as juvenile
in Australian books for decades and even some popular field guides have got
it completely wrong.
Also Geoff's bird could never be a juvenile because it has a mixture of
differently aged feathers especially obvious in the flight feathers.
Juveniles would have all feathers the same age and at this time of the year
which is probably still a bit early for juvs but not absolutely, the
feathers would all be very fresh.
Cheers Jeff.
From: Geoffrey Jones
Sent: Saturday, 5 September 2009 1:25 PM
To: Jeff Davies
Subject: FW: [Birding-Aus] Done It Again
From: Tom Tarrant
Sent: Saturday, 5 September 2009 12:35 PM
To: Geoffrey Jones
Subject: Done It Again
Hi Geoff,
Interesting comments, (great image by the way!)
Having seen similar birds, I'd like to know why it was thought to be a
different colour-morph rather than a juvenile, did Jeff elaborate?
Tom
On Sat, Sep 5, 2009 at 10:36 AM, Geoffrey Jones <>
wrote:
Good Morning All
Jeff Davies has politely pointed out that
the immature Pallid Cuckoo that I posted on the website is actually a Female
Adult Rufous Morph Pallid Cuckoo, so please except my apologise for my
inexperience Regards Geoff Jones http://barraimaging.com.au/index.php
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Tom Tarrant
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