CUCKOO 12/14 - Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo

 I like to thank fellow MNS birders Andy & Ang  for their guidance in my search of this lifer of mine . As you can see in my first photo there are 2 of them!!! at the site  in Kuala Selangor Jeram side. One was  with white  eye and the other has reddish one. This will be my second lifer of the year of 2015.

The HB Cuckoo looks almost the same as our resident - Little Bronze Cuckoo except that it has a more prominent brown eye stripe ala the Banded Bay and without the red eye-ring of the latter. Size wise they are the same at 6 inches or 15-16cm. 

The Horsfield’s Bronze-cuckoo is common throughout Australia preferring the drier open woodlands away from forested areas. It is a rare visitor/ vagrant to Peninsula (ie. a bird that strays off its typical migration course because of strong winds, which in this case, has blown it beyond the Indonesian islands during the austral winter (ie. May, June, July and August), from Australia to Indonesia. So now this cuckoo can be  seen from Singapore  to Pulau Burung Seberang Prai.  I am sure there are plenty of HB cuckoo  along the coastal plains of peninsula Malaysia ..........its a matter of going out to explore and search for it... a record year for 2015. Look for Mimosa vegetation in the open land which they make it their playground. Cuckoos have a common habit of impaling their preys on  thorny plants.  They usually hunt for hairy caterpillars amongst the lower ground shrubland.  Next is to see any of  Perak birders to report from their side. Koay what say u. BTW Madi fellow birder from KL(http://madibirder.blogspot.com) did sight one as far as  in the coastal side of  Bukit Keluang Trengganu in 2012.

Now is to wait for a Sacred Kingfisher to drop by .........fat hope  you'll say.