Shining Bronze-Cuckoo

Description:

Male:- Crown to mantle dull copper-bronze, in Australian race (plagosus), contrasting with bright bronze-green back and wings, broad concealed white bar through underwing. Outer tail feathers are banded black and white, rest is dark bronze-green with dark band near tip. Indistinct white line over eye. Underparts are white with close complete copper-bronze bars. Eye brown, gray or pale pink. Pale gray eye-ring. Black bill, 4-5mm wide in front of nostril in Australian race, wider in New Zealand race. Dark olive-gray feet. Female:- Similar to male but change between mantle and back not so clean cut. Eye brown becoming gray.

Habitat:

This spotting was seen in the scrubby land surrounding the Wooroolin Wetlands - Eg.. Fern-leaf Wattle, Early-flowering Black Wattle, and Rough-barked Apple. There were a few Superb Fairy-wrens and Brown Honeyeaters present also.

Notes:

This little bird fair frightened the devil out of me. I'd never seen nor heard this bird before - then from behind where I was standing, this, to me, machine-gun came in. This was the high pitched metallic sound the S B-c makes. As these birds are parasitic maybe this bird was checking out the next ‘nest-invasion’ victim. Will it be Thornbill, Gerygone or other? Apparently Bronze-cuckoos eat a number of insects that are often considered unpalatable to most birds – Eg.. Craneflies, Plecopterans which is an order of insects that comprises the stoneflies. I think this is a male S B-c. Photos are edited. References :- Michael Morcombe Field Guide to Australian Birds and Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds.