Pheasant Coucal
The Pheasant Coucal I must confess it is not my most favorite bird because it is responsible for eating many of the young chicks nesting on our property. These photos I took here were taken a couple of years ago before I acquired my good len's and it was overcast almost raining on and off. Other names are Cane Pheasant and Swamp Pheasant. They are 50-70cm in size with the female being larger. The Pheasant Coucal in these photos are a breeding Coucal. There is a difference in eye color and feather colours in breeding and none breeding coucals, but am posting these on my blog site to show their beautiful feathers
They Breed from Oct-April and the female lays between 3-5 eggs. The incubation period is 15 days, with young remaining in the nest for another 13 days. The male pheasant coucal does most of the incubating of eggs and feeding of the young, as well as building the nest. They can be very difficult to spot in the trees and bushes and they are able to fly in and around trees very quietly. They are predominantly carnivorous, the pheasant coucal eats small reptiles and amphibians, bird eggs and young, small mammals and large insects.
The Pheasant Coucal is found in eastern and northern Australia, from the New South Wales south coast north to Cape York, and across the top of Australia to the Pilbara, as well as eastern Timor and lowland New Guinea
These photos were taken on our property and we lost 4 Buff Banded Rail Chicks that were only about 4 days old that day. It was not nice watching helplessly with nothing we could do to stop it. He was too quick. I am not that keen to capture them on my good lens's either. Dedicated to all the Australian Fauna and Flora lost in the 2019/2020 bush fires