Pheasant Coucal

The Pheasant Coucal (Centropus phasianinus) is a rather large ground-dwelling member of the cuckoo family, however unlike all other cuckoo species in Australia it is not a brood parasite. It builds its own nest and raises its own young with the male doing most of the incubation and feeding of the young. 

Males and females look similar although the female is larger than the male.  They form lasting pairs. During the breeding season their head, neck and entire underparts are black. In the non-breeding period the head, neck and underparts are cinnamon streaked, rufous and buff.

Pheasant Coucals are not found in Victoria. The nearest records in Birdata are around Jervis Bay on the mid NSW south coast. Being sedentary ground dwellers that are not strong fliers, it is perhaps unlikely that we will ever see them in Victoria.  However with climate change and the southerly drift of a number of other vagrant species one cannot rule out the possibility of one turning up in East Gippsland.

Pheasant Coucals inhabit tall grass and other dense ground cover including cultivated sugar cane crops where their presence if often detected by their distinctive call – if you have not heard the call before it is worth checking. They are rather shy and usually run for cover when found, so opportunities to photograph them are usually a matter of luck. They do on occasions forage in urban gardens where these afford dense cover. Now and again when surprised, rather than run for cover, they will flutter or climb up to a vantage point, providing the possibility of brief photo opportunities before flying to cover. 

Recently two Pheasant Coucals were heard calling in my daughter’s NSW Northern Rivers area garden. I grabbed the camera and carefully stepped out the front door to find the pair on the front lawn. One was noticeably smaller than the other. I managed one photo before they jumped the fence into a dense thicket of Tiger Grass. After a short wait, one bird – not sure if it was the male or the female – emerged from the grass and flew first to a shady shrub, then to the neighbouring house roof, from there back to my daughter’s house roof, then to a Jacaranda tree on the front fence and from there across the road to a large Blackwood Wattle tree. The series of photos in this post were taken in the seven locations described above. 

Please click on photos to enlarge.

The notes above and the following photos reveal what a strange bird the Coucal is. It has a somewhat fearsome appearance with red eyes and a strong hooked bill that are reminiscent of a raptor.