Cuckoo, Cuckoo
To watch the transformation of a baby chick through the 'bad hair days' into adulthood is amazing.
This beautiful Channel-billed Cuckoo has shown me its colours and personality, arriving as a helpless chick weighing in just over 200g, it had blown down in a storm then picked up by a dog, looking a bit shaken and messed up. With a call loud enough to be heard down the street, it grew and grew, and changed colours before my eyes.
Now weighing in at over 650g,it is off to stage two on a 130 ha property a lot more North than Wild Days where it will increase fitness for the journey to come, off to Papua New Guinea for the winter. As cuckoos are not raised by their parents, they navigate that journey by themselves for the first time, using genetic memory. Amazing. The natural world never ceases to amaze me.
Farewell and good luck! It was a delight to have had the pleasure.
This beautiful Channel-billed Cuckoo has shown me its colours and personality, arriving as a helpless chick weighing in just over 200g, it had blown down in a storm then picked up by a dog, looking a bit shaken and messed up. With a call loud enough to be heard down the street, it grew and grew, and changed colours before my eyes.
Now weighing in at over 650g,it is off to stage two on a 130 ha property a lot more North than Wild Days where it will increase fitness for the journey to come, off to Papua New Guinea for the winter. As cuckoos are not raised by their parents, they navigate that journey by themselves for the first time, using genetic memory. Amazing. The natural world never ceases to amaze me.
Farewell and good luck! It was a delight to have had the pleasure.
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