Alternative names: Fan-tailed Brush Cuckoo; Ash-coloured Cuckoo
- Cacomantis flabelliformis
Cuculus flabelliformis
Identification
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)
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Fan-tailed Cuckoo. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 15 September 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Fan-tailed_Cuckoo
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
