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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Hi all,
According to HANZAB there are not that many ring recoveries of CBCs. How old can CBCs get? Is that published somewhere?
Here is the anecdote: For the past three summers I have seen a very tame male CBC using the same branch just outside the window of the lunch area of our institute here in Sydney. He is spending quite some time staring into the mirror/through the window (?) and is not scared at all by myself and my colleagues staring back at him – just centimeters away. Also heavy attacks by Pied Currawongs and Noisy Miners don’t scare him away. At one point one of his attackers hit him so hard that he shed some blood from his face. One of my colleagues told me that “he” has been coming here for more than 10 years. I was wondering if this was the same individual coming here for more than 10 summers or if different individuals share the same odd behavior.
Cheers,
Nikolas