Wild Bird Wednesday 396 - Pheasant Coucal

The Pheasant Coucal (Centropus phasianinus) is a ground living cuckoo that is found around much of the eastern (from NSW) and northern coastal areas of Australia. It does not occur in my normal birding territory, and I saw this one in the Cooinda camp ground in Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory.

In fact I was eating my breakfast as it walked past! I cried "Pheasant Coucal" and set off in pursuit.  My family are tolerant of such things!

For a camp site bird it did seem rather nervous - maybe it was my excited cry.  You can see in most of the pictures that it is looking skywards as if in anticipation of danger.

Interestingly this is the only Australian cuckoo that makes its own nest into which it lays 3-5 'dirty white, chalky, stained brownish, scratched' eggs.  I get the feeling that the author of that description is somewhat disapproving!

The bird is about 50 - 70 cm long.  The dark head on this bird shows that it is in breeding plumage.

These pictures really do look better when you click on them to make them bigger.

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