I saw a flock of 30+ Channel-billed Cuckoos over Cania Gorge National Park, Qld
on Christmas Day 2005. I observed a flock of 50+ Channel-billed Cuckoos in a
lone fig tree on a hilltop near the park entrance of Goodnight Scrub National
Park on 19th Feb 2006. The birds looked to be gathering for migration but I
can’t prove that.
I spoke to Eric Zillmann, the patron of our Bundy BOC about his experiences
with Channel-billed Cuckoos. His observations of this species date back to the
30s around the Gin Gin area. When out studying owls he observed Channel-billed
Cuckoos around a Torresian Crow’s nest in the pale evening sky around 8pm. One
came into the nest calling loudly and drew the crow off and the female bird
calling softly nearby, slipped into the nest and laid the egg or eggs.
He sent his observations to Alec Chisholm but never found out if they were
published. Eric saw 2 Channel-billed Cuckoo chicks being raised by crows in
the Wallaville area.
In 1980 he saw 3 Channel-billed Cuckoo chicks being raised in a crow’s nest and
noted they were all at different ages meaning the eggs were laid at separate
times.
The first chick to leave the nest was fed along the creek for three days before
the second chick left the nest. The second cuckoo chick was a good 80 yards
from the first chick. The third was still in the nest. Feeding three birds
must have driven the crows to a point of insanity Eric noted. A week later all
Channel-billed Cuckoo chicks were following their foster parents.
The cuckoos were raised in a 200 acre paddock of sclerophyll forest with a
creek flowing through it. By the first week in March Channel-billed Cuckoos
commence gathering in numbers. Harassment by the Torresian Crows had ceased.
By the second week in March all Channel-billed Cuckoos had left the Gin Gin
Wallaville district Eric observed.
Trevor Quested
Bundaberg QLD
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