Hole 17
FAN-TAILED CUCKOO
Many birds on South Lakes only alert us to their presence by their calls. The Fantail Cuckoo is an unobtrusive bird, but its call is often heard in and around the the 17th tee.
The Fantailed Cuckoo’s call which is very loud and distinctive, is a beautiful descending trill, which can be heard in late winter and spring. Fantail Cuckoos are often referred to as the “Herald of Spring”.
Insert Call of the Fantailed Cuckoo.
However, the calls of the Fantail Cuckoos hide a somewhat sinister outcome. Fantail Cuckoos belong to the family of parasitic cuckoos, that is, they lay their eggs in other bird’s nests!
All this calling you may hear is for the cuckoos to mate and then lay their eggs in the cup nests of smaller birds such as wrens, honey eaters or thornbills. The smaller birds are often totally unaware that it is not their egg and hatch it out. When the cuckoo hatches, it then sets about turfing out the eggs or hatchlings of the smaller birds.
The small parent birds are then left to feed this ever growing “giant” they think is their nestling! It is fascinating that these cuckoos have evolved this way with a learned but now instinctive behaviour.
