Little is known about the native long-tailed cuckoo (koekoea, Eudynamys taitensis), a migratory bird which breeds in New Zealand in summertime. To help uncover some of the mysteries around this bird, Associate Emeritus Dr Brian Gill has investigated its diet. Dr Gill's work was done in Auckland Museum’s Land Vertebrates Department and is the first detailed study of this cuckoo's diet. Dr Gill tells of his discoveries here.
Two species of cuckoos migrate to breed in New Zealand during our summer. They spend the winter in tropical Pacific islands to the north. There is not much known about the birds as they inhabit New Zealand’s tall, dense forest so they are hard to see and find and can be difficult to study.
Cuckoos have several remarkable habits. One is brood-parasitic breeding, which means the cuckoos do not build a nest or rear their own young. Instead, the females lay their eggs individually in the nests of other species, who become the foster-parents, and take no further part in the process. Long-distance migration is another spectacular attribute of many cuckoos. In my recent book (The Unburnt Egg – More Stories of a Museum Curator) I give more details of migration and breeding in a chapter devoted to the long-tailed cuckoo. I describe how I found a whole egg in the oviduct (the tube through which the egg passes from the ovary) of one dead cuckoo. Eggs of the long-tailed cuckoo are almost as rare in the museums of the world as hens’ teeth.
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Image credit (right): These two immature long-tailed cuckoos were found dead by members of the public. In this image they are yet to be dissected.