Fan-tailed Cuckoo - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by Ken Doy
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, June 2018

Alternative names: Fan-tailed Brush Cuckoo; Ash-coloured Cuckoo

Cacomantis flabelliformis

Cuculus flabelliformis

Identification

Immature
Photo © by Neil
Sydney, Australia, February 2004

26cm (10¼ in)

Slate-grey upperparts
Wedge-shaped tail, notched white on outer webs
Grey throat
Buff to rufous breast
Whitish bars on undertail
Yellow eye-ring
Black bill
Olive-yellow feet

Variations

excitus is much darker with greyish black upperparts and dusky chestnut underparts
pyrrophanus has rich chestnut underparts and a grey-brown eye-ring
schistaceigularis has grey on throat and upper breast and is dark chestnut below
simus is smaller and has also a melanistic morph

Distribution

Eastern Australia, from Queensland to South Australia. South-western Western Australia and Tasmania. The Tasmanian population migrate to the Australian mainland when not breeding.
Also occurs in New Caledonia, New Guinea and Fiji.
Common in most of its range.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

There are 5 subspecies^[1]:

C. f. excitus:

Montane forests of New Guinea

C. f. flabelliformis:

South-western, eastern and south-eastern Australia (Cape York to south-eastern South Australia), Tasmania

C. f. pyrrophanus:

New Caledonia and Loyalty Islands

C. f. schistaceigularis:

Vanuatu

C. f. simus:

Fiji Islands

Habitat

Open forest, native bushland, woodland and wooded gardens.

Behaviour

Calls from an exposed perch.

Diet

Mainly caterpillars and insects, such as centipedes and spiders, for which they forage in the foliage. The also hawk for flying moths and ants.

Breeding

A brood parasite, many species are chosen to act as the host, including fairy-wrens, scrubwrens, and flycatchers, a favourite is Brown Thornbill.

References

Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, B.L. Sullivan, C. L. Wood, and D. Roberson. 2012. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2012. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/downloadable-clements-checklist
Birds in Backyards
Oz Animals.com
Australian Museum online
Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved June 2018)

List of references

Recommended Citation

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Fan-tailed Cuckoo. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 8 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Fan-tailed_Cuckoo

External Links

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