Jacana puts best foot forward on the river

Few birds better at putting a best foot forward than Comb-crested Jacana. And few look better than this one in morning sunshine at Ross River Bush Garden, Townsville.

Just up the river, Australasian Darter soaks up the sun.

Close by, Little Bronze-cuckoo pauses in its hunt for hairy caterpillars.

And an Australian Reed-warbler makes a rare appearance outside its bulrush habitat.

Hobby and Kestrel offer differing views of passion

Hobby lacks intensity enough to describe my daily passion, but Australian Hobby at least offers link between obsession and its targets. This young female speeds after large dragonflies from two favoured vantages at the Pandanus viewing point in the Townsville Common Conservation Park (yes, I know, it's a mouthful).

Bird sitting in place today but no big dragonflies.  Images from past two days, with no catches recorded before high Sun cast underside of bird in darkness.

Sun did better job on back of female Nankeen Kestrel today. Minutes earlier she rejected male, then flew to another tree and allowed him to mount. Brief blurred (too distant) flurry and away he flew. Female allowed slow walkup to close beneath  5m tree.

Another allowing close-ups this morn, Little Bronze Cuckoo. Wasn't, however, willing to 'watch the birdy' and persisted in looking high left and right. These things can drive one cuckoo (sorry: corn for brekkie).

Some cuckoos suited down to the ground

Seems the current dryness suits Brush Cuckoos (Cacomantis variolosus) down to the ground.

Early mornings in Tyto and elsewhere have been full of their shrill, sometimes frenzied calls. But it's gone a bit quieter lately with more attention to feeding than breeding.

Much quieter always is the Little Bronze-Cuckoo (Chalcites minutillus). This female is the real deal and nothing like the super-bronze Goulds, lumped with it - for now anyway.

Also quieter, but plaintively so, is the Pallid Cuckoo (Cacomantis pallidus). Immature bird thought safety lay on the ground. Ran through the grass before realising error. Good thing chaser was clumsy old boy and not swift cat or dog. Not all situations suit cuckoos down to the ground.

Bronze takes first place

Bronze often beats silver, or gold, in the bird world, as shown by this Little Bronze-Cuckoo (Chalcites minutillus) in Tyto today. A wee winner, I reckon.

Not quite so winning, but worth two looks, immature Rufous Songlark (Cincloramphus mathewsi) at Mungalla yesterday. Don't get many of the species up this way.

Cuckoos pose parental puzzle

Cuckoos puzzle me. Their parasitic habits seem to offer freedom from parental labours, yet over recent years I've seen three Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo (Chalcites basalis) pairs feeding immatures of their own species - perhaps indeed their own young. Just as baffling, how did the species first come to pop eggs into the tiny hidden domed nests of Red-backed Fairy-wrens? After the first, imprinting would explain continued laying: the cuckoos recognise fairy-wren nests are theirs. But the first ... ?

And Little Bronze-Cuckoo (Chalcites minutillus) can on a rare day be seen in what might be family groups of three or four, though the young appear more often to be begging than receiving food. 

Not seen anything similar with Brush Cuckoos (Cacomantis variolosus). Perhaps others have?
Click pix to enlarge