Nature's Gem: The Banded Bay Cuckoo

I'm delighted to see one of my digiscoped Banded Bay Cuckoo pictures is currently published in MNS (Malaysian Nature Society) newsletter, August 2010. You can download a copy of the newsletter from HERE.

Cuckoo is one of the unique birds in Malaysia due to its brood-parasitism. Click HERE if you would like to learn more about Cuckoo, and view my other digiscoped pictures of Banded Bay Cuckoo and Plaintive Cuckoo, or click HERE to view the Little Bronze Cuckoo, one of the world's smallest cuckoo. 

Watch this video to learn more about Cuckoo:

Thanks to Peggy for writing this article, and Connie for the wonderful guided birding trip in Ipoh and the bird identification.

Banded Bay Cuckoo

The Little Bronze Cuckoo (Click HERE to view the Little Bronze Cuckoo) that I spotted in Ipoh reminds me of the Banded Bay Cuckoo and the Plaintive Cuckoos which I sighted in year 2009.

The first cuckoo that I sighted was the Banded Bay Cuckoo (Cacomantis sonnerati) and the Common Iora (Aegithina tiphia) in Ipoh, which I sighted on 11-July-2009 together with birding friends, Connie and Peggy.

Cuckoos are nest parasites, laying their eggs in the nest of the host. The photographs have obviously shown that the iora is the foster parent of the much larger juvenile, it has been tricked into incubating and brooding the cuckoo chick. 

Here are the pictures show the Juvenile Banded Bay Cuckoo being fed by a Common Iora:

The second cuckoo which I sighted was the juvenile Banded Bay Cuckoo in the month of July 2009, it was spotted in my neighbourhood in the southern part of the Penang islands. Here is the picture of the second Banded Bay Cuckoo which I spotted in Penang:

 

To understand more about the behaviour of the brood parasitic, watch this video clip from Youtube, "Nature of the Cuckoo" by David Attenborough, BBC:

To learn more about cuckoo, you can read the introduction chapter from the book "Cuckoo" by Robert B. Payne, CLICK HERE.

Plaintive Cuckoo in Ipoh

The third cuckoo that I sighted was the Plaintive Cuckoo (Cacomantis merulinus) at Kek Lok Toong, in Ipoh on 24 October 2009. The Plaintive Cuckoo is an astonishing bird, which is hardly seen in Penang but one can hear its calls in the evenings. I was very fortunate to see both male and female Plaintive Cuckoo in Ipoh. 

The female:

The male:

and they love caterpillars very much:

Happy Birding and Digiscoping.

Little Bronze Cuckoo, Ipoh.

I was lucky to spot and digiscope my lifer, a Little Bronze Cuckoo in Bercham, Ipoh on 16th of April, before continued my journey to Cameron Highlands. This was the third time I encountered with Cuckoo in Ipoh.

Let's take a look of this cute and beautiful Little Bronze Cuckoo:

Little Bronze Cuckoo is one of the world's smallest Cuckoo, the length is about 15cm. CLICK HERE to find out more about other Cuckoos I spotted last year and learn about their brood parasitic behaviour.

Happy birding and digiscoping.