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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