Monday, December 26, 2011

Honeyeater conned by Koel

Blue-faced Honeyeater (Entomyzon cyanotis) about to feed caterpillar to the cuckoo planted on  it, an Eastern Koel (Eudynamys scolopaceus), near Tyto wetlands.


Young Koels demand food for weeks until even the most dutiful parents turn their backs on the greedy offspring. 
Click pix to enlarge

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4 comments:

  1. Denis WilsonDecember 27, 2011 at 11:24 AM

    Yeah, the unlucky duped parents work very hard, don't they?
    Cheers
    Denis

    ReplyDelete
  2. Char PaulDecember 27, 2011 at 12:52 PM

    That's just beautiful~ sharing is caring ~:-)

    I know the lil sunbirds that nest in my den are very hard working too, those chicks just go on and on!

    ReplyDelete
  3. SnailDecember 27, 2011 at 5:01 PM

    That poor honeyeater looks quite frazzled by the effort. The only thing worse than a koel would be a channel-billed cuckoo!

    I expect there are conversations some evenings where the parents blame the chick for their loss of head feathers.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tyto TonyDecember 28, 2011 at 2:26 PM

    Hi Denis: Very, v hard.

    Hi PSI: The sharing is so hard-wired the caring is involuntary: who do we praise?

    Hi Bronwyn: "Face it, my blue-faced partner, I suspect we've been victim of a bare-faced robbery."?

    ReplyDelete

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