Gah! I missed Total Bastard Tuesday, or Thursday for that matter. It's been a while since I've posted in that category because bastards have been few on the ground. But then I remembered the largest bastard of them all, the Channel-Billed Cuckoo is loudly making its presence known once again.
These birds fly in from Indonesia and New Guinea around October each year and do their bastardly deeds - laying their egg in the nest of unsuspecting host parents. These birds usually lay in the nest of magpies and currawongs, and it won't be long before we start seeing these host parents being harassed by comically large babies begging for ALL THE FOOD.
Some cuckoos will kick out the eggs of the host parent while laying but the female Channel-Billed does no such thing. Often the other eggs will be damaged by her enormous weight (no shaming here but she really is a big gal. I mean, just look at that bill alone), but generally the host parent's eggs will hatch but the chicks will often starve as the parent is so busy trying to feed the very imposing imposter.
I do have a soft spot for these birds though and these ones had clearly been dining on some juicy, red forest fruits with their bills and chest feathers stained by the pigment. A Butcherbird came in and dive-bombed them repeatedly, not at all concerned with the loud snapping of that beak. It's a tough world out there, bastard or not, and personally I'm hoping to come back as a dog. A lot less effort required.
Channel-Billed Cuckoo
Northern Illawarra
