Shining Bronze-Cuckoos

Cuckoos

The Shining Bronze-Cuckoos (Chrysococcyx lucidus previously Chalcites lucidus) is a cuckoo found in Australia, Indonesia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu.

Within its range, it usually stays up high in the canopy of rain forests, but can also be seen in some thick and overgrown eucalyptus forest areas in eastern and south-western Australia.

Description:

The Shining Bronze Cuckoo has a very fine, straight pointed beak.

It got its name from the color of its plumage which has a rather metallic sheen to it.

Breeding / Nesting:

In most cases, Shining Bronze-cuckoos lay their eggs in the nest of other birds, specifically they like wrens, thorn bills, honey eaters (White-eared Honeyeaters), and flycatchers.

The eggs are long and plain green to brown in color – often matching the colors of the eggs laid by their preferred host birds. The unsuspecting hosts will incubate the eggs and raise the young as their own. Young cuckoos will often push any eggs or chicks of the host birds out of the nest to eliminate any competition for food. They will even do so when they are reared by their true parents.

The young cuckoo hatches without feathers and fledges at around 2 to 3 weeks. The foster parents continue to feed the cuckoo for several weeks after the young have left the nest.

Call / Vocalization:

The Bronze cuckoo has a very shrill and high pitched whistle.

Diet / Feeding:

Their main diet consists of insects, such as caterpillars, beetles, flies and ants.

Species Research by Sibylle Johnson

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