Calling cuckoo experts
I was out around the backroads of Geraldton WA yesterday and came across a couple of Horsfield’s bronze-cuckoos walking across a paddock. They were energetically hunting for bugs and clearly visible in the short grass. As I walked closer to photograph them I was amazed to see they didn’t fly away but simply sunk down into the grass and froze. Since the grass is only a few centimetres high, they were still quite visible and easily identified. They kept still in that position for a good five minutes while I stood some distance away, then, maybe deciding I didn’t pose much of a threat, one by one they got up and continued on their way.
My question is, is this normal behaviour? I don’t know too much about cuckoos, usually only seeing them sitting on a fence somewhere. By the look of them they were adult birds and quite capable of flying away in the face of a threat but they didn’t. I’m intrigued – can anyone tell me whether this is their usual reaction.
FYI – also saw a couple of gorgeous very dark wedgies and what looked very much like a crimson chat about halfway through getting his breeding plumage, the first I’ve seen in this part of WA since 2008, and several white winged trillers who consistently refused to co-operate for a photo-shoot.
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I recall participating in one discussion, and inquired whether the bird hopped or walked, but the observer hadn’t been able to see.
I have contacted Karen and she has confirmed that in this case the birds were walking, not hopping. I assume this is to be expected for a non passerine, but there seem to be enough exceptions that one should check.
In the case I observed (at Bronzewing FFR) the bird appeared to be running like a pipit, but I couldn’t see its legs. I’ve wondered ever since, so thanks for confirming it, Karen.
Peter Shute
Don’t know about behaviour in general, but I have also observed a Horsfield’s Bronze Cuckoo fossicking about on the ground and not seeming at all worried by my presence, I can’t have been more than a few metres away. This was at Lightning Swamp Reserve in Noranda, a northern suburb of Perth.
Belinda Forbes Stirling W.A.