January 30 - February 5, 2022: Issue 524

 

Summer Babies 2022: Channel-Billed Cuckoo Pair Being Fed By Currawong 


The Pittwater Spotted Gums in our yard are at present deafening with the sound of Black Prince cicadas. These are a feast for local birds and particularly this year as the mother of the pied currawong pair that lives here is spending all day everyday catching them to feed to the pair of Channel-billed cuckoos they are raising this year instead of a nest of their own young. When we're not being deafened by the cicadas, the constant cries for 'food, more food!' from the cuckoos can be heard.


Black Prince Cicada, Psaltoda plaga, - at Elanora, November 20, 2020 - photo by Selena Griffith


calling for food


feed me! Feeed me!



The Currawong sticks its head right in the cuckoos mouth to give it food


you can just see the cicada the currawong has caught


More! More! I need MORE food



the currawong takes off to catch more cicadas


caught one!


Feed me! Feed me!





down the hatch!

BirdLife Australia tells us;
Of the dozen or so species of cuckoos that occur in Australia, the Channel-billed Cuckoo (Scythrops novaehollandiae) is the largest. Being a cuckoo, it lays its eggs in the nest of another bird, and being a large cuckoo, it must lay its eggs in the nest of another large bird. The species usually chosen as foster parents are Pied Currawongs, Australian Magpies, crows and ravens, although occasionally eggs are laid in the mud-nests of White-winged Choughs or Magpie-larks, and very occasionally in the nests of birds of prey.

The Channel-billed Cuckoo lays its eggs in the nests of the Australian Magpie, Gymnorhina tibicen, the Pied Currawong, Strepera graculina and members of the crow family (Corvidae). Unlike many other cuckoos, the young birds do not evict the host's young or eggs from the nest, but simply grow faster and demand all the food, thus starving the others.
The favoured foods of the Channel-billed Cuckoo are native figs and native fruits, though some seeds and insects.

Apart from the Channel-billed Cuckoo's large size, its massive pale, down-curved bill, grey plumage (darker on the back and wings) and long barred tail make it difficult to confuse it with any other bird. In flight the long tail and long wings give the bird a crucifix-shaped (cross-shaped) silhouette. Young Channel-billed Cuckoos have more mottled buff, brown and grey plumage. Although they are not nocturnal birds (night birds) in the strict sense, Channel-billed Cuckoos are notorious for calling all night long during the breeding season. This species is sometimes known as the Storm-bird or Stormbird.

The Channel-billed Cuckoo migrates to northern and eastern Australia from New Guinea and Indonesia between August and October each year. The birds leave Australia in February or March to return to where they came from - north.

So this currawong mother, who must be exhausted trying to feed these large juvenile pair, will finally get a from the feeding of these Summer Babies.

The Pied Currawong's nest is a bowl of sticks, lined with grasses and other soft material. The material is gathered by both sexes, but the female builds the nest, which is placed in a high tree fork, up to 20 m above the ground. The female incubates the eggs, and the male feeds her. The male also supplies food to the female for the first week after the chicks hatch and she feeds the chicks.

Photos: A J Guesdon.

Dollarbird Babies 

While on baby birds - Kerry Ritson took this photo this week of a pair of baby Dollar Birds in a tree hollow this week. This underlines how important it is to look after our local trees.



The Dollarbird (Eurystomus orientalis) gets its unusual name because it has a large, prominent white spot on each wing, visible when the bird is in flight; these spots were considered to resemble silver dollars. Dollarbirds are often seen flying around in forests and woodlands, especially near wetlands, especially where bare branches extend above the forest canopy or over water. They launch from these perches in pursuit of flying insects, which are grabbed in the bill and brought back to the perch, where they are eaten.

Dollarbirds feed almost exclusively on flying insects. They search for food from a conspicuous perch and then capture it in skilful aerial pursuits, before returning to the same perch.

During breeding season, pairs of Dollarbirds are often seen flying in characteristic rolling flights. These flights are more common in the evening, and are accompanied by cackling calls. The white eggs are laid in an unlined tree hollow and are incubated by both adults. The young birds are also cared for by both parents. The same nesting site may be used for several years.

The Dollarbird arrives in northern and eastern Australia in September each year to breed. In March or April the birds return to New Guinea and adjacent islands to spend their winter. When in Australia they will inhabit open wooded areas, normally with mature, hollow-bearing trees suitable for nesting or alongside our creeks and waterways where their food, mainly flying insects, is also in abundance at this time of year. During their breeding season pairs of Dollarbirds are often seen flying in characteristic rolling flights. These flights are more common in the evening, and are accompanied by cackling calls. The white eggs are laid in an unlined tree hollow and are incubated by both adults. The young birds are also cared for by both parents. The same nesting site may be used for several years.

The Anula tribe of Northern Australia associate the dollar-bird with rain, and call it the rain-bird. A man who has the bird for his totem can make rain at a certain pool. He catches a snake, puts it alive into the pool, and after holding it under water for a time takes it out, kills it, and lays it down by the side of the creek. Then he makes an arched bundle of grass stalks in imitation of a rainbow, and sets it up over the snake. After that all he does is to sing over the snake and the mimic rainbow; sooner or later the rain will fall. They explain this procedure by saying that long ago the dollar-bird had as a mate at this spot a snake, who lived in the pool and used to make rain by spitting up into the sky till a rainbow and clouds appeared and rain fell. From  Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941).  The Golden Bough.  1922. Ch. 2. The Magical Control of Rain.

Here's some images of a pair taken at Carell creek in 2013:
 


2013 Dollarbird photos: A J Guesdon.