Foster Child

For the last week we've been driven mad by the strident cries of this bird. Watching it, we thought it was engaged in a turf war with the resident pair of pied currawongs. It kept chasing them all over the place, calling raucously.  

Peter finally found it in the Book of Australian Birds. It's a juvenile channel-billed cuckoo.  The bird book says they're  seasonal visitors from New Guinea and Indonesia that lay eggs in the nests of currawongs, magpies and crows.  Our poor, deluded currawongs are feeding it.  It's about twenty percent bigger than they are but they're still driving themselves demented trying to keep up with its demands.  Nature's cruel at times.