Shining Bronze-Cuckoo
Chalcites lucidus
A small glossy-greenish bird with a heavily barred throat, chest and tail. Parasitises gerygone species across its range. Distinguished from Horsfield’s Bronze-Cuckoo in Australia by lacking the dark stripe through the eye, and typically occurs in wetter and denser forest than Horsfield’s. Listen for territorial calls with a fast repeated rising “coo-ee” whistle (2 whistles per second), which can have phrases with a rougher and slower falling “tsee-ew” whistle (1 whistle per second) mixed in.
Identification
Hard to spot and easier to hear, the shining bronze cuckoo is 13–18 cm (5.1–7.1 in) in overall length, has a wingspan of 25–32 cm (9.8–12.6 in) and weighs around 25 g (0.88 oz). It is slightly larger than Horsfield's bronze cuckoo (Chrysococcyx basalis). It has metallic golden or coppery green upperparts and white cheeks and underparts barred with dark green. The female is similar with a more purplish sheen to the crown and nape and bronzer-tinged barring on the belly. The bill is black and the feet are black with yellow undersides.
Taxonomy
The shining bronze cuckoo was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other cuckoos in the genus Cuculus and coined the binomial name Cuculus lucidus. Gmelin based his description on the Shining cuckoo from New Zealand that had been described and illustrated in 1782 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham had in turn based his account on a drawing obtained from Joseph Banks. The shining bronze cuckoo is now placed together with 12 other species in the genus Chrysococcyx that was introduced in 1826 by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek χρυσος khrusos meaning "gold" with κοκκυξ kokkux "cuckoo". The specific epithet lucidus is from Latin and means "clear" or "bright".<p>In 1801 Latham described the "Glossy cuckoo" as Cuculus plagosus from New South Wales, and the two were classified as separate species for many years. However Latham's Cuculus plagosus is now considered as a subspecies of the shining bronze cuckoo. In New Zealand it is usually known as the shining cuckoo, or by its Māori name pīpīwharauroa.<p>Formerly some authorities placed the shining bronze cuckoo in the genus Chalcites instead of Chrysococcyx.<p>Four subspecies are recognised:
- Scientific name
- Chalcites lucidus
- Authority
- (Gmelin, JF, 1788)
- Order
- Cuculiformes
- Family
- Cuculidae
- Genus
- Chalcites
Range and habitat
The shining bronze cuckoo is a summer visitor to Eastern Australia from the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland to South Australia's Eyre Peninsula and Kangaroo Island and Tasmania, as well as Western Australia from Carnarvon in the north to the southwest and east to Esperance. These winter in the Lessa Sunda Islands and New Guinea. New Zealand populations winter in the Solomon Islands and arrive in New Zealand from mid August, though they are not common until October. They spread out to Stewart and Chatham Islands and are found to an altitude of 4000 ft. The island races, layardi in New Caledonia, Vanuatu and some of the islands of the Solomon Islands, and harterti of Rennell and Bellona Islands in the Solomons, are non-migratory.
- Breeding range
- AU : w, nc, e, se Australia, Solomon Is., Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and New Zealand region including Chatham Is. (e of North I.)
- Non-breeding range
- to Lesser Sundas, New Guinea region, Bismarck Arch. and Solomon Is.
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Behavior
Migration pattern: Complete migrants.
Conservation
Population trend: stable.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Campylopterus hyperythrus
Large, conspicuous hummingbird of tepui highlands. Green above and rufous below. Note extensively rufous outer tail feathers, which are easily seen as birds tend to flare tail frequently. Generally common at higher elevations (above 1000 m), especially at forest edge and in lower-stature, scrubby vegetation. Feeds on nectar and pugnaciously defends patches of flowers against other hummingbirds. Not shy and will approach to investigate observers. In territorial interactions, gives a rich, sharp note, often doubled, repeated incessantly, and similar to calls of more widespread Gray-breasted Sabrewing; also gives a single, ascending, burry note, possibly as an alarm call. No other hummingbird in highland range is as large or shows as much rufous.
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