With a yellow eye ring, a dark slate-grey back with warm buff underparts and a finely barred tail that flicks open like a fan. A mysterious presence in quiet gullies and forest edges. Their descending trill is often heard long before the bird is seen.
Fan-tailed Cuckoo
Cacomantis flabelliformis
Photo: Chris Barnes
Photo: Stephen Goldsworthy
Photo: Cathy Pert
Photo: Stephen Goldsworthy
Bird Description:
Special features:
They’re brood parasites — laying eggs in the nests of fairy-wrens, thornbills and scrubwrens.
Did you know?:
The egg of a cuckoo tends to hatch earlier than those of its host, which allows the cuckoo chick to remove the unwanted eggs of its ‘adopted’ parents – Source: BirdsinBackyards
View more information on this bird at Birdlife Australia: https://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Cacomantis-flabelliformis
Habitat: Forest
Size: Small
Type of bird: Bush Birds