Bird Watching: DAILY PICS VOL. 24, 1 by kennedyh

kennedyh wrote:
On our daily walk in Mathison Park today, I saw a Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike in a distant tree. The next thing I knew it had flown across and landed in a tree right beside me. I have wanted to get a good photo of this bird for a long time and suddenly I was presented with a chance in glorious sunshine.
The bird proved to be an immature, without a full black face, but I was nevertheless pleased with the result.
Here is the immature Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike (Coracina novae-hollandiae), newly arrived this spring (probably born here last year).
These are handsome birds with soft grey backs and an almost completely black head on a full adult. They are in the family Campepagidae, which means caterpillar-eaters and caterpillars are their main diet. Here in the South-east of Australia, they are only summer visitors and one name for this bird is Summer Bird. Another interesting name is Shuffle Bird and this arises from the way the birds land on a perch. They have a distinctive dipping flight and when they land, they always, without fail, raise the shoulder of one wing and then settle the wing back and then do the same with the other wing. This is so distinctive that you can recognise the bird by it at a great distance. This bird duly performed its wing shuffle when it landed in the tree for its photo session.