Channel-billed cuckoos – Liz Metal : Liz Metal

I really like September in Sydney as the times get longer and hotter. I additionally love the indicators that summer season is coming quickly that happen in September – November:

• The flowering Jacarandas ( I additionally adore it when their leaves flip yellow earlier than falling, which occurred final month),
• The shedding of the bark of the native bushes – specifically the Angophora Costata, whose trunk goes from pale pink/gray to vibrant orange/crimson (particularly within the afternoon solar),
• The brand new leaves (crimson) on the Eucalyptus, and
• The arrival of the Channel-billed cuckoos from Indonesia and New Guinea.

These are loopy birds!

They’re huge and weird in look –  white and gray with an almost-toucan-shaped invoice and crimson eyes! However most of all, they’ve the loudest and most raucous name of any fowl – even ‘worse’ than the screeching white cockatoos.

I truly love their name, and so they make me snort. In order I used to be doing this fast sketch at Lane Cove Nationwide Park on the weekend, it made me comfortable to listen to them for the primary time this summer season.

Right here is an effective YouTube video with their name.

In my previous house there was a big tree subsequent to me and one 12 months a couple of of the CBCs nested there. That’s after I actually took discover of them and now I’m tremendous conscious of their name.

I not often truly see them so I’ve solely drawn them as soon as again in 2022 and that was from a photograph.”Maniacal” is an effective description of them.

I don’t know the way a lot I’ll hear them at my new place however I hope that I’ll see them flying previous.