Shining Bronze-Cuckoo, first sighting

This morning I spotted a bird I hadn’t seen before. What’s more, it was at one of my favourite stomping grounds: Manly Dam. A few minutes after seeing the bird, I showed my photos to another bush walker. He identified the bird as a Shining Bronze-Cuckoo. I think he’s right.

The bird was quite small, with glowing green-blue wings and tail. Its face was light grey and white, and its front had horizontal brown barring on white:

This looks like a juvenile bird, as the barring is not yet as well-defined as in the adults.

Due to the less well-defined barring, I did wonder if this was a Horsefield’s Bronze-Cuckoo. But this bird doesn’t have the dark line through the eye that’s characteristic of Horsefield’s Bronze-Cuckoos, and the white tips of the tail feathers are hidden at rest, while in the Horsefield’s Bronze-Cuckoo the white tips are visible.

Like most other cuckoos, Shining Bronze-Cuckoos don’t build nests. Instead, they lay their eggs in the nest of another bird species and leave the other species to raise their young. Shining Bronze-Cuckoos usually choose the nests of thornbills, gerygones, scrubwrens, or fairy-wrens. There were several Variegated Fairy-wrens in the same area as this cuckoo. I wonder if some of them were the adoptive parents!

Common name: Shining Bronze-Cuckoo
Scientific name: Chrysococcyx lucidis
Length: 16-18 cm
Date spotted: 25 February 2026 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’38.8″S 151°14’49.0″E

Tipper - Cuckoo

https://peertube.automat.click/w/aVVgnz2NRxsGViiFKYhCiz

Juvenile cuckoo - older posting - Post your cuckoo photo in the comments

https://linktr.ee/vickyoutenphoto

#photography #wildlife #wildlifephotography #nature #naturephotography
#Mastodonnaturecommunity #ukwildlife #cuckoo

#Cuckoo left me #impressed.

What an incredible #movie!
At the start feels like pure #horror as it moves forward goes better into the #suspense category.

I’m not going to make any #spoilers. This is one of those #movies that’s better to go completely #blind.

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Big baby! Koel cuckoo fed by Red Wattlebird

It’s cuckoo season here on the east coast of Australia. We have several types of cuckoos that migrate to our shores for the summer months and get the local birds to feed their young. That’s right! Cuckoos lay their eggs in some other bird’s nest and fly away free as a … well, as a bird. The adoptive parent is often much smaller than the baby cuckoo, but it’s hornswoggled into feeding the youngster until the cuckoo is old enough to take care of itself.

One of the cuckoos that come to our shores is the Common Koel, also called the Eastern Koel. A couple of days ago, I saw a young Koel being fed by a Red Wattlebird:

https://youtu.be/TxR4GjTvG3k

In the video, you can hear the juvenile Koel chirping repeatedly, begging for food.

Here’s a photo of the big baby:

Adult Koels make quite a variety of sounds, including loud squawks and more melodic whistles. You can hear them in the video in this post. And you can see some shots of male and female adult Koels in other posts.

Common name: Common Koel, Pacific Koel, or Eastern Koel
Scientific name: Eudynamys orientalis (was scolopacea)
Approximate length: 45 cm
Date spotted: 3 December 2025 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’57.5″S 151°15’20.8″E

#australia #birds #birdwatching #cuckoo #easternKoel #sydneyBirds