mdahlem.net WWW

Aust birds    Bird names   News   1-26    Habitats    Key plants    Glossary    Plumage    Nests    Tips    Thumbnails    Gen. info    Sponsors    Photos for sale
NON-PASSERINES     1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10     11     12     13     14	15     16     17     18     19     20     21     22     23     24     25     26     PASSERINES
Common names sorted alphabetically: A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   W   Y
Have birds left a mess around your place? We recommend to try a professional cleaning service.

13

Pallid Cuckoo (Cuculus pallidus) Alternate name(s): "Grasshopper Hawk", "Harbinger-of-Spring", "Stormbird*", "Rainbird*", "Semitone-bird", "Scale-bird", "Brainfever-bird" Aboriginal name(s): "djoodorn" (WA) Size: 28-34 cm Weight: 90 g (average)

Australia: Family Group 13 Family Group 13 Table Oriental Cuckoo Pallid Cuckoo Brush Cuckoo Black-eared Cuckoo Fan-tailed Cuckoo Horsefield's Bronze-Cuckoo Shining Bronze-Cuckoo Little Bronze-Cuckoo Australian Koel Channel-billed Cuckoo Pheasant Coucal Rufous Owl Powerful Owl Barking Owl Southern Boobook Eastern Barn Owl Eastern Grass Owl Sooty Owl Tawny Frogmouth Papuan Frogmouth White-throated Nightjar Australian Owlet-nightjar Family group table Index of bird names Habitat pages Key plants Thumbnails page Birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Pallid Cuckoos are large cuckoos. They have a light-grey front (throat, chest and belly), a vent and undertail coverts barred in shades of grey and the typical heavily barred grey-and-white undertail of many Australian cuckoo species. The frons, crown and back are grey. The eyes are surrounded by a yellow eye-ring, which is located within a black eye stripe. The wings are scalloped grey, with dark-grey flight feathers. Males are always grey, some females can have an hepatic morphology, with a chest scalloped in shades of rufous-brown, and the head and back, including the wings, in shades of brown and dark-brown. Immature that have moulted into adult plumage almost all over, retain one small light-grey spot on the nape of the neck until they are mature. Juvenile Pallid Cuckoos are heavily scalloped in shades of brown and grey all over the body and their tail is barred like that of adult birds. All Pallid Cuckoos have dark irises, a black bill and grey legs and feet. The wings have the narrow white leading edge on the shoulders typical of many Australian cuckoo species.

Taxonomy, classification See Pallid Cuckoo at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed based on sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Pallid Cuckoo is available HERE . Apart from Australia, Pallid Cuckoos are only found in Timor Leste. Pallid Cuckoos are migratory. During their breeding season they are found primarily in the South-East of Australia (Tasmania, VIC, NSW and south-eastern QLD) and the South-West (the south-western corner of WA, up to about Geraldton, but also inland up to the tropic of Capricorn near the spring of the Fitzroy River). Outside their breeding season they disperse, vacating the south-eastern parts of the continent and populating most of the NT and SA and the Kimberley in WA. They are occasionally found in the rest of the continent as well, except the most arid part (the major sandy deserts of eastern WA). They are also found on numerous offshore islands. Pallid Cuckoos are usually found in forest or more open woodland and on farmland with scattered trees.

Sightings Click here for sighting information Pallid Cuckoos showed up where we lived in 2003-2006, 20 km South of Narrabri, NSW, only occasionally. In general, we see Pallid Cuckoos only infrequently. At Eulah Creek, 20 km East of Narrabri, NSW, a Pallid Cuckoo appeared in August 2010. In 2011, again a single Pallid Cuckoo was seen in the third week of August. Migrating only inside Australia, they appear further South again earlier than other migrants that cross the Torres Strait. In 2011 these Australian migrants probably rode the northerly winds of a weather system that brought rain to inland NSW in mid-August. In 2016 the first Pallid Cuckoo of the season was again heard in late August, ahead of a rain event. Pallid Cuckoos are seen by us there semi-regularly since. An immature bird was found in the garden in May 2017, which is very late for this migratory species. J. Greaves reports spotting a Pallid Cuckoo at the Granites Gold Mine, inland NT, in June 2015, and at Boolardy Station, Murchison, WA, in August 2016.

Photos

Not the photos you want? Or are you after even better quality? Have a look here .

ADULT

MALE

Close-up lateral view of a male Pallid Cuckoo
[Eulah Creek, NSW, August 2010]

Here the same Pallid Cuckoo as above issuing its loud call
[Eulah Creek, NSW, August 2010]

Lateral view of a male Pallid Cuckoo; this is the bird whose call was recorded on 27 July 2014
[Eulah Creek, NSW, July 2014]

Pallid Cuckoo on a power line
[20 km South of Narrabri, NSW, 2006]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Immature Pallid Cuckoo behaving strangely, by staying on the ground while being approached by an observer
[Yarrie Lake, NSW, October 2016]

Lateral view of an immature Pallid Cuckoo on a power line; note the drooping wings, which is often observed in this species (photo courtesy of J. Greaves)
[The Granites Gold Mine, inland NT, June 2015]

Near-dorsal view showing the pale patch at the back of an immature Pallid Cuckoo's head
[Eulah Creek, NSW, August 2011]

Dorsal view of an immature Pallid Cuckoo
[Eulah Creek, NSW, May 2017]

Lateral view of an immature Pallid Cuckoo moulting into its first adult plumage; hints of rufous feathers may indicate that this bird is developing into a rufous-morphology female
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, January 2017]

Dorsal view showing the pale patch at the back of an immature Pallid Cuckoo's head (photo courtesy of J. Greaves)
[Boolardy Station, Murchison, WA, August 2016]

Dorsal view of an immature Pallid Cuckoo
[Eulah Creek, NSW, August 2011]

Willie Wagtail was clearly not pleased by the Pallid Cuckoo's appearance
[Eulah Creek, NSW, August 2011]

Here again Willie Wagtail objects to the presence of an immature Pallid Cuckoo
[Eulah Creek, NSW, March 2013]

Near-frontal view of an immature Pallid Cuckoo starting to moult into adult plumage
[Eulah Creek, NSW, March 2013]

Near-frontal view of an immature Pallid Cuckoo starting to moult into adult plumage
[Eulah Creek, NSW, March 2013]

Lateral view of an immature Pallid Cuckoo starting to moult into adult plumage
[Eulah Creek, NSW, March 2013]

Frontal view of a juvenile Pallid Cuckoo
[20 km South of Narrabri, NSW, January 2006]

Near-dorsal view of the same juvenile Pallid Cuckoo as shown above
[20 km South of Narrabri, NSW, January 2006]

White-plumed Honeyeater making it clear to a Pallid Cuckoo that it is not welcome
[20 km South of Narrabri, NSW, January 2006]

Breeding information

As all cuckoos, Pallid Cuckoos host on smaller bird species. One potential host species is the White-plumed Honeyeater.

Behaviour

Social behaviour: Territorial

Mobility: Migratory

Elementary unit: Solitary/pair

Food, Diet

Like most other cuckoos, Pallid Cuckoos are insect hunters. They take their prey from foliage and from the ground. This species has a rare taste for hairy caterpillars, which most other birds dislike.

Lateral view of an immature Pallid Cuckoo with its prey (which looks like a small beetle)
[Eulah Creek, NSW, March 2013]

Call(s)/Song

For this species we have recorded the following call(s)/song. The interpretation of their meaning is our own; comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

palcuck_20140727.mp3

dumetorum (NW NSW)

Contact call (male)

© MD

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

Would you like to contribute photos or sound recordings to this site? If interested, please CLICK HERE. Credits to contributors are given HERE.

Disclaimer: Comments are always welcome. We give no guarantee that the information presented on these pages is always correct or up-to-date. External links are marked as such and we take no responsibility for the contents of external pages. All images on this site are protected by copyright & used by permission of the respective owners. If you wish to reproduce them or any of the material presented on this web site, please contact us:          Last updated: 13 May 2017.