Hi all,
I was treated to some fantastic views of a Channel-billed Cuckoo at around a
metre today at work as one was checking out a Pied Currawong nest outside a
colleague's office window. I noticed the size and shape, along with the barring
of the underparts and thought there was a slight superficial resemblance (apart
from the beak) to a Pacific Baza.
Given that /Cuculus/ cuckoos have plumage resembling sparrowhawks in order to
scare host species birds from nests, I wondered if the Channel-billed Cuckoo
was doing something similar by mimicing a similarly-sized raptor. There's a
good paper on the subject in /Cuculus/ cuckoos here:
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/275/1644/1817
Any thoughts?
Cheers,
Tony
Photos, paintings and drawings of Australian, NZ, Swiss and British Birds
www.tonykeenebirds.co.uk
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