Cuckoo Cooee Cooeee Cooeeee

The Channel bill cuckoo has been very vocal this week. His call (if I am identifying him correctly). I have only sighted him in the distance though he is clearly very close to the house, particularly VERY early in the morning. In Spring, the males fly down from Indonesia or PNG to mate. THey first have to fight for their territory which they do by making 'deranged cooeeee calls', each starting at the same base note and subsequent cooees a little higher on the second beat. They hide whilst doing this because according to an SMH article 'all the other birds want to beat the daylights out of you' presumably because of their despicable parasitic behaviour. Eggs are laid in the nests of other birds - currawongs, magpies, crows etc who then act as foster parents, often to the demise of their own infants, whose eggs are not thrown out of the nest as other cuckoos do, but may be damaged by the female. If the foster parent's eggs hatch the chicks tend to starve by coming second in the competition for resources. Despite being fed insects by their foster parents, they somehow know they are cuckoos and know to fly to Indonesia and that they should be eating fruit when they get there. 'mazing.

This is picture of the cuckoo  - not my picture but one c/- google images.