birding-aus

Cuckoos

To: Philip Veerman <>, 'Stephen Ambrose' <>, "" <>
Subject: Cuckoos
From: Penny Brockman <>
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2017 06:25:32 +0000
No, never observed interactions between Koels and Channel-bills.  Once 
noted reaction of a juvenile Koel to pair of adults.  The juvenile was 
in the palm tree in my back yard in Darlington, Sydney, eating the 
fruit, when the adults landed on the electricity wires in the back lane 
where they began what appeared to be mating behaviour, even the male 
attempting/failing to mount the female. I think this was round about 
Christmas time or later in January. They made a lot of noise and the 
juvenile was hypnotised by this activity. When they flew off, it 
followed. Had days earlier seen a juvenvile (maybe this one) being fed 
by Red Wattlebirds.

Interesting ??

On 27/12/2017 11:07 AM, Philip Veerman wrote:
> I am curious. Why would there be any negative interaction suggested, between
> the Koels and the Channel-billed Cuckoos? They are very different, mainly in
> size and parasitise very different hosts. Perhaps as adults they eat similar
> food. Do they have a reason to dislike each other? Has Penny observed
> aggression? Koels are very noisy regardless, and could easily be described
> as "complaining" at anything. Even among the normal and similar looking and
> same sized smaller cuckoos, I don't think they interact much (I have never
> seen it). In Brain's comment below, maybe the word "displacing" is not the
> right word but that was about Currawongs which are a host species.
>
> Philip
>
> -----Original Message-----From: Birding-Aus
>  On Behalf Of Stephen Ambrose
> Sent: Wednesday, 27 December, 2017 7:51 AM    To: 'Penny Brockman';
>    Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Cuckoos
>
> We've had both Koel and Channel-billed chicks raised in our garden or our
> neighbour's garden in Ryde, NSW in the 14 years that we've been here. My
> impression is that both species can raise young in the same neighbourhood
> each year, but not necessarily every year.  For instance, the Channel-billed
> Cuckoo seems to be successful in parasitising a nest in our garden or
> neighbour's garden once every 3 years on average.  I suppose it comes down
> to the availability of nest hosts - if the cuckoos have successfully
> parasitised nests one year, then they may need to move to other locations
> the following year or two years to allow their local host population to
> build up again.
>
> Kind regards,
> Stephen
>
> Stephen Ambrose
> Ryde NSW
>
>
> -----Original Message-----From: Birding-Aus
>  On Behalf Of Penny Brockman
> Sent: Tuesday, December 26, 2017 10:12 PM     To:
>    Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Cuckoos
>
> I don't think the Channel-bills have replaced the Koels, just given the
> latter something to complain about, which they were doing loudly over the
> weekend in Normanhurst as the Channel-bills cackled early morning.
>
>
> On 23/12/2017 12:45 PM, Brian Fleming wrote:
>> Some years ago the ABC did a short report on Channel-billed cuckoos
>> spreading into Sydney and displacing the unwanted Currawongs.
>>
>>   Brian Fleming (who HEARD a Koel in an adjoining suburban garden in
>> Ivanhoe some years ago).
>>
>>
>> On 23/12/2017 6:08 AM, Geoff Ryan wrote:
>>> I know why Judith. All the Koels are here at Yamba NSW but no
>>> Channel-billed cuckoos.
>>> Geoff
>


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