Fan-tailed Cuckoo.
Photo: K Vang and W Dabrowka © Bird Explorers
Fan-tailed Cuckoo.
Photo: K Vang and W Dabrowka © Bird Explorers
Distribution map of Cacomantis flabelliformis
Map © Birds Australia Birdata
Fan-tailed Cuckoo
Scientific name: Cacomantis flabelliformis
Family: Cuculidae
Order: Cuculiformes
What does it look like?
Description
The Fan-tailed Cuckoo is a slender cuckoo and the adult bird is easily identified by a yellow eye ring (slightly greenish in young birds), its generally dark slate-grey back and wings, becoming pale rufous below, with a boldly barred black and white under tail. Younger birds are duller and browner in colour.
Similar species
The striking yellow eye ring (slightly greenish in young birds) is clearly visible from quite a distance and helps distinguish Fan-tailed Cuckoos from the paler and smaller Brush Cuckoo, C. variolosus (20 cm - 24 cm), which has a grey eye-ring. The Chestnut-breasted Cuckoo, C. castaneiventris (20 cm - 24 cm), of northern Cape York Peninsula, has dark chestnut underparts and less conspicuous barring on the under tail.
Where does it live?
Distribution
Fan-tailed Cuckoos are found throughout eastern Australia, south-western Western Australia and Tasmania. Birds in Tasmania migrate to the mainland in the non-breeding season. Fan-tailed Cuckoos also occur in New Caledonia, New Guinea, Fiji, New Zealand and several islands in between.
Habitat
Fan-tailed Cuckoos are among the more commonly seen members of the cuckoo family, especially in the favoured habitat of open forests, woodlands and similarly vegetated gardens. Individuals are often seen perched on an exposed branch when calling.
What does it do?
Feeding
The Fan-tailed Cuckoo enjoys hairy caterpillars in its diet, but will also take a variety of other insects and their larvae. Food is located from an exposed perch and is seized in flight or from the ground. The bird returns to its perch to eat the prey.
Breeding
As with most other species of Australian cuckoos, the Fan-tailed Cuckoo is a brood parasite; laying its eggs in the nests of other species of birds. Host species include flycatchers, fairy-wrens, scrubwrens and thornbills, particularly the Brown Thornbill, Acanthiza pusilla. A single egg is laid in the nest and one of the host's eggs removed. The young cuckoo generally hatches earlier than the host's eggs and proceeds to eject the other eggs or hatchlings. The seemingly unaware foster parents then rear the cuckoo chick.
References
Pizzey, G. and Knight, F. 1997. Field Guide to the Birds of Australia. Angus and Robertson, Sydney.
Schodde, R. and Tideman, S.C. (eds) 1990. Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds (2nd Edition). Reader's Digest (Australia) Pty Ltd, Sydney.
Strahan, R. (ed) 1994. Cuckoos, Nightbirds and Kingfishers of Australia. Angus and Robertson/Australian Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife, Sydney.