Photo of Animalia: Black-eared Cuckoo (species: Chrysococcyx osculans) (Gaia Guide)

Black-eared Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx osculans) being fed by a �Speckled Warbler

© David Cook

Cocoparra National Park, NSW, Australia.

On the way back from visiting Willandra National Park with the Canberra Ornithologists Group (COG) over Easter, we stayed at Cocoparra NP for a few days. They're both really nice National Parks - great birds at both, but my photographic highlight was this moment. I was alerted to the cuckoo's begging call and followed it around waiting for a foster parent to feed it. The feeding was all over in a blur - I had the camera set to 7 frames per second, and the warbler was only in 3 of the frames - fly in, chuck the food down the gaping hole, fly out again, all in under half a second! I'd never seen this before, so it was a nice experience, and lucky enough to capture the moment.

Captured on 29 Apr 2011

Photograph location coordinates are -34.095882:146.2088.