Drying out

This very wet Pheasant Coucal decided that my neighbour's porch was a good place to dry out. We've had 100 mm of rain over the last four days and all of us are feeling a bit soggy.

The Pheasant Coucal is a large and heavy bird, 70 cm long. It lives mainly on the ground and struggles to get airborne. It's a member of the cuckoo family, but raises it's own young rather than tricking other birds to do the hard work. They are found in tropical and subtropical coastal Australia, and Papua New Guinea. 

Around here, we hear them more often than see them. Their call, during the summer mating season, is a resonant whooping (go to the link, then touch the Listen button on the webpage).


The extra gives a better impression of what the bird looks like.