After wintering in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, channel-billed cuckoos usually make their first appearance in Sydney around mid-September. I caught my first (and only) sight of one today over Centennial Park, calling out in its distinctive squawk, with several currawongs close on its tail. I didn't get any pictures.
Despite their rise in Sydney over the past 30 years, and their frequent inclusion on lists of commonly sighted backyard birds, surprisingly little is known about channel-billed cuckoos. This may be because they are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other birds (like currawongs) whose young they easily out-compete. Or maybe it's simply because no one has made it their life's work to study this species. With more bird species than ecologists in Australia, it's no wonder why we still know so little about species ranges; patterns of distribution; breeding cycles; and diversity - in appearance, behaviour, genetics, bird calls. (As some wise people - like Bill Bryson - have noted, "it's not a biodiversity crisis, it's a taxonomist crisis.")
I have compared birdwatching and astronomy in a previous post. It's no coincidence that these are two of the rare disciplines where amateurs can (and do) play integral roles. When the subject under study is as vast as a galaxy, a continent, or a branch in the tree of life, scientists need all the help they can get.
I have an image of my retired self setting up bird monitoring equipment and making a go of it as an amateur researcher. I wake up early in the mornings and relax in my favorite bird hide as the fog lifts. I find pet projects and publish papers as an "independent scholar" (like these guys). And I contribute in some significant way to making sense of the vast unknown.
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