This black faced Cuckoo Shrike has recently become a visitor to our garden.
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I whish I had one in my garden. Nice soft colours. The bird seems to be floating in the air.
M-L
Thanks Araminta. They do appear to float as they generally land on the very top branch and flat their wings as they land.
Lovely photo...they do like to get up high in trees, makes them hard to get a good shot of. You have done it perfectly, getting the black eye to stand out from the black head.
Any ideas on what might be attracting the black-faced cuckoo shrike to your garden, rbuddy?
Luv 'em , hard to get a decent pic, usually fairly suspicious. Great pic rbuddy
Neil
Unfortunately not Woko. Our book notes their tendency to perch on the highest branch of a tree to enable them to spot food but we haven't seen them feeding on anything in particular so I'm not sure what the attraction is.
Thanks Neil.
Thanks Whistling Duck.
Thanks, rbuddy. If you do see something please let us know. I often have a black-faced cuckoo shrike at my place (s.e. slopes of Mt Lofty Ranges SA) but I've never seen them eating anything. I believe they're primarily insect eaters but they also eat berries.
Woko the tree where they mostly land is laden with berries so best guess that's what they are after but I haven't actually seen them eating them.
Beautiful colouring. Love that pastel grey/blue into black. Thanks.
Yes, rbuddy, I noted the berries in the photo. They're very green so I wondered if they weren't yet palatable for the Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike. Still, it would be interesting to know if those berries are attracting the bird. Eyes peeled, rbuddy.
By the way, do you know what species that tree/shrub is?
Hi Woko
I have it on good authority that it's a native or rough leaf Elm. The Rainbow Lorikeets and Pale Headed Rosellas are munching away at the berries so I'm guessing they are ripe. Will certainly keep an eye out to see whether our Shrike also indulges. Here's another image of it with the berries.
Just a friendly piece of information, rbuddy: if the plant isn't local to your area then those birds could be carrying seeds into the nearest bushland thereby degrading that bushland.
Given the selection of birds you've posted, rbuddy, I assume you're in Qld somewhere?
The rough leaved elm (Aphananthe philippinensis) is widespread throughout coastal Qld and northern NSW, (and into SE Asia) so it's probably OK.
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane
Hi Timmo
Yes, Sunshine Coast hinterland. We have Landcare people planting thousands of tress on our property with Council funding to regenerate the surrounds of the river system. They haven't expressed any concern about the Elm.
Beautiful stuff, rbuddy. I'd love to see photos of your project's progress.
Nice work, rbuddy.
My folks are doing something similar up there, it's a lovely part of the world.
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane
Woko I don't know whether this solves the question of what the Shrike feeds on but took this image this morning in a non berry bearing tree. It may just be after insects on the leaves?
Or just passing through or hiding from a raptor. Hard to say. Do you know what species the tree is, rbuddy?
It's an umbrella cheese tree. They thrive below our flood line and seem to thrive on being inundated.
Thanks, rbuddy. Out of curiosity, I Googled this one & came to www.noosanativeplants.com.au/plants/245/glochidion-sumatranum which had good information about the umbrella cheese plant. Looks like it's local to your area & in the right situation so no wonder it's thriving.
Yes, we have lots of them around our dam which is in our flood zone and they appear to thrive on being flooded, even in the never-ending rain we had last year.