Where are the cuckoos?
Pallid Cuckoo, Round Hill, NSW
I’ve recently been busy updating my database of bird sightings. I must admit that while I have been doing my degree over the last three years that the database is sadly out of date. Still, I’m a bit more organised once again and making good progress on catching up on all those sightings.
One of the things that I suddenly realised while adding recent records to the database was the almost complete absence of cuckoos in our garden over the recent spring/summer seasons. Usually we hear them calling incessantly over many days, especially when host species like the honeyeaters are nesting.
The cuckoo species we usually get here here in Murray Bridge South Australia include:
- Horsfield’s Bronze-cuckoo
- Pallid Cuckoo (see photo above)
- Fan-tailed Cuckoo
- Shining-bronze Cuckoo (once only)
This year I’ve only heard the Horsfield’s Bronze-cuckoo, and then only a couple of times. Strange.
I don’t think I said or written anything to upset or offend them.
Will have to wait until later this year to see if they come back.
Good birding.
Spring must be here
I have a sneaking suspicion that spring has arrived in South Australia.
My reasons?
- It has stopped raining every day.
- The nights are warm enough not to have a heater going.
- The days have more periods of sunshine than cloud.
- I’ve had serious bouts of hay fever.
- The birds are busy nesting.
And today I recorded two species of birds in our garden that usually arrive from up north about this time of the year.
The first was one of my favourites: the Rainbow Bee-eater.
Rainbow Bee-eater
The second species was the Horsfield’s Bronze-Cuckoo. I only heard this one briefly late in the afternoon. This is the first cuckoo I’ve heard this spring. I will be listening carefully for the other species of cuckoo that occur here at this time of the year. And with so many other species breeding they shouldn’t have trouble finding a host for their eggs.
Spring is in the air
I heard my first cuckoo for the season today. Officially it is the first day of spring here in Australia, so that’s quite appropriate.
This cuckoo was some distance away and I didn’t get to see it. Going on the call alone, it was probably a Fan-tailed Cuckoo, a relatively common species in the Murray Bridge area at this time of the year.
Many other species seem to be quite busy and calling frequently but I’m not sure what is nesting yet. I must take out a little time over the next week or so and wander around having a look in all the trees and bushes around our house. Some of the resident breeding species are very sneaky about where they locate their nests.
Getting back to that cuckoo – I don’t yet have a photo of this species. Instead, I can show you another common local species of cuckoo, the Pallid Cuckoo. (The photo was taken at Round Hill Nature Reserve in NSW.)
Pallid Cuckoo, Round Hill Nature Reserve
Spring is in the air
Spring has arrived here in South Australia – and not just according to the calendar. The last few days have been beautiful. Sure, the nights and mornings have been chilly and rather brisk. Sometimes the breeze has also had a bite to it, but the sunshine has been most enjoyable.
The garden birds have all started being far more active and are calling more energetically as well. The Yellow-rumped Thornbills are busy feeding all over the garden, calling as they go. They are probably nesting somewhere too.
The various species of Honeyeaters are also very vocal and active. I’m sure they are also nesting but they can be rather secretive about it. Our resident Australian Magpies are still feeding young in the nest. The Grey Shrike-thrush is very vocal all around the house.
Nearby the Skylarks and the Rufous Songlarks are in fine voice and fill the air with beautiful song. I haven’t yet seen it but there is a Rufous Whistler lurking around somewhere too; his beautiful ‘eee-chong’ call after the whistle is also good to hear.
UPDATE: You can hear a recording of the call at this site:
http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/finder/display.cfm?id=122
Rufous Whistler (juvenile)
Cuckoos come calling
2 Comments »5th September, 2008; Category: Cuckoos
A few days ago I mentioned that we haven’t yet seen or heard any cuckoos this spring. That should be about to change.
This morning I think I heard the plaintive call of a Horsfields Bronze-cuckoo before breakfast – my breakfast – not that of the cuckoo. Not sure if he/she had already eaten. It could have been a Common Starling imitating said cuckoo, of course. I’ve been fooled by the starlings many times before.
A little later in the morning we left for our lectures in Adelaide. We had just entered the South Eastern Freeway when a grey bird flew across the road in front of us. It looked for all the world like a Pallid Cuckoo, but travelling at 100kph (my car – not the bird) I couldn’t be 100% sure.
Pallid Cuckoo, Round Hill Nature Reserve