TomKal foto

There are many fascinating birds in Australia, but  watching the Pheasant Coucal for the first time gave me a lot of excitement and satisfaction. I saw it a few times and the photos published here are the result of these meetings. The name itself seems to be intriguing. Is it more cuckoo or pheasant? Formally it belongs to the family cuculidae  but the appearance, maybe a bit elongated in shape, actually in size resembles a pheasant. It looks more like a predator than representatives of galliforms. So many different features in one species always causes such emotions. I could not find out whether, like our cuckoo, it  is a smart, negligent parent, but compared to our pheasant - coucal is probably more eager to fly. I approached him several times close enough that after taking its wings off the ground it effortlessly flown quite long way, always sitting in the upper location with the view of all the surrounding. In this point it was always the end of the session, unlike in the case of the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo. Photos of  Pheasant Coucal in flight, rust-colored feathers on the wings with the background of green bush, show in the best possible way the charm and beauty of this bird. Well, these feathers like a cape. Coucals are much lighter than our pheasants. Their weight does not exceed one kilogram and the wingspan is about a half meter. It is a pity that it can be found only in Australia and New Guinea. Welcome...