nature can be cruel.....

[fletty]

There I was, in the shed for the first time in weeks, trying to get over carpenters block, just can't get into it at the moment AND, to top it all off, there's some kid nearby screaming MUM, MUM, MUM .... MUUUM!
I go ouside to check it out ... I told you I was suffering carpeneters block ... and right there, in the tree was the 'kid'.
Some poor currawong mother had a pallid cuckoo chick foisted on it, no doubt at the expense of her own chicks, and she is desperately trying to keep this chick fed. It is already bigger than her and she spends every daylight moment searching for food and feeding the monster. aahh motherhood....
fletty

[wheelinround]

For starters thats a great photo. Nice of them to wait till you hobbled up grabbed the camera and hobbled back.

[Woodwould]

'Tis a great picture. I didn't realise you had cuckoos here in Australia.

[fletty]

'Tis a great picture. I didn't realise you had cuckoos here in Australia.

... you mean other than those in Canberra?

fletty

[chambezio]

A few years back I was privileged to have Mr & Mrs Willy-Wag-Tail make a cute little nest on a steel brace in the roof of my shed. They toiled to get the nest built and then mum sat on the eggs for how ever long until they hatched. then they laboured all day, the 2 of them to feed the new family. On HOT days the little fellas would sit on the rim of the nest waiting for mum and dad to return with fresh food. I think there were 4 chicks.
They got used to me in the shed and really took no notice of me as i was part of the scenery. One day my wife came out to have a look for herself, at the family I had told her about for weeks. I thought I would climb a step ladder and bring one down for closer inspection of my lodgers......
BAD mistake....they got scared and bolted for the open roller door. They were inexperienced at flying (even though they probably would have fledged the next day) so they sort of glided out of the nest and out the roller door.
As quick as you like the dog grabbed one,gone, n opportunist butcher bird grabbed another,gone, we went out after the other 2 who sort refuge in a tree. We kept an eye out for them because mum and dad were out but by the end of the day the chicks were all gone (as meals for others)
I was soooo sorry and sad. Mr & Mrs W-W-T had put so much hard work and effort into these little guys and stupid me buggered it up because I wanted to touch them
(Puts a lump in my throat just remembering)
PS The sound of the cuckoos calling is a sound we always associate with summer

[tea lady]

Fantastic pic!

I sw a coockoo leave its family a couple of years ago. Came in with its family of thorn bills. It was about 4 times the size of everyone else!

Bronze cockoo


Brown thornbill

[Toymaker Len]

Great photo. I think it might be a Channell-billed Cuckoo which pick on magpies, crows and currawongs. Heaps of them around here, they stay up and party all night sometimes, daytimes they swoop down in groups of three or four and buzz a nest that they have spied out drawing off the furious parent birds. The lurking egg-layer then darts into the nest, grabs the eggs and lays her own all in ten or fifteen seconds then takes off, job done. They are very fast in the air and can effortlessly outfly crows etc. End of summer they head up to New Guinea.

[Bushmiller]

I think Cuckoos are the same despicable bird the world over. In SE QLD we have what is locally called the storm bird. It seems to have a single mournfull call, but I don't mind it. It's kind of haunting but quite melancholy.

It is a Koel, which is a variety of Cuckoo.

Regards
Paul

[robbygard]

Great photo. I think it might be a Channell-billed Cuckoo which pick on magpies, crows and currawongs. Heaps of them around here, they stay up and party all night sometimes, daytimes they swoop down in groups of three or four and buzz a nest that they have spied out drawing off the furious parent birds. The lurking egg-layer then darts into the nest, grabs the eggs and lays her own all in ten or fifteen seconds then takes off, job done. They are very fast in the air and can effortlessly outfly crows etc. End of summer they head up to New Guinea.

i thought that as well ... pallid cuckoos usually go for much smaller birds ... we have had three juvenile channel billed cuckoos around locally but i don't know what fostered them ... they were already fending for themselves and the crows (autralian raven here), magpies and magpie larks all had clutches which were not compromised ... willie had two horsefield bronze cuckoos last year as well as two of his own to look after ... they worked hard for that

regards david

[Scribbly Gum]

Brilliant photo Alan.
I can't help thinking that it is karma in action though.
I have heard stories many times about the carnivorous habits of the currawong.

Currawongs eat mostly fruit, although during breeding season, this changes and they eat as much protein as they can get. The protein is usually in the form of other birds; particularly other birds' chicks.

I have a picture in my mind of a cuckoo that looks a bit like Jesse Ventura, having laid its egg in a currawong nest, flying off with a little thought bubble above its head that reads:
PAYBACK TIME!

[Twisted Tenon]

End of summer they head up to New Guinea.

We have those around here too (Gosford). They have a real raucous call that sounds like they have bit parts in a Hitchcock movie.

TT

[artme]

Great photo of Currawng and "chick" !!

Be a bit worse for her if it was a Channel Billed Cuckoo!

[mic-d]

To balance your poor currawong and great photography here are a couple of bad photos of a two of one-eyed currawongs who happily hang around and allow me to supplement their nutrition. They have opposite eyes missing but it doesn't seem to affect their flying or depth perception at all. They appeared on the door step within a week or two of each other.

Cheers
Michael