Fan-tailed CuckooScientific name: Cacomantis flabelliformis
Meaning of name: Cacomantis is from the Greek words cacos, meaning bad, and mantis, meaning prophet. Flabelliformis is from the Latin words flabellum, meaning fan, and formis, meaning form.
Aboriginal name: Doolar (doo’lar).
Distribution: Found from Shark Bay, through the southwest and southeast of Australia and along the coast of Queensland.
Description: Up to 28cm long with a 42cm wingspan.
Notes: The furthest distance recorded by the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme for this species of bird to travel is 404km. The oldest bird recorded was still alive when its band was read in September 1975, 5 years 11.7 months after being banded (information as at 20 June 2012).
References: Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Various contributors.
What Bird is That? Neville W Cayley. 1978
Aboriginal names of bird species in south-west Western Australia, with suggestions for their adoption into common usage. Ian Abbott. 2009. Conservation Science Western Australia Journal. Volume 7 No 2 http://www.dpaw.wa.gov.au/about-us/science-and-research/76-publications-and-resources/103-conservation-science-wa-journal
Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/science/abbbs/abbbs-search.html
Merriam-Webster Dictionary https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flabellate
This photograph was not taken in the reserves of interest to the FQPB. Photograph courtesy of Clive Nealon.
This photograph was not taken in the reserves of interest to the FQPB. Photograph courtesy of B Wykes.
This bird is juvenile.
This bird is juvenile.
