page_title: Horsfield's bronze cuckoo
section_title: Diet and behaviour
hierarchical_section_title: Horsfield's bronze cuckoo / Diet and behaviour
caption_attribution_description: Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo Chrysococcyx basalis Capertee Valley, NSW, Australia
context_page_description: Horsfield's bronze-cuckoo is a small cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. Its size averages 22g and is distinguished by its green and bronze iridescent colouring on its back and incomplete brown barring from neck to tail. What distinguishes the Horsfield's bronze-cuckoo from other bronze-cuckoos is its white eyebrow and brown eye stripe. The Horsfield's bronze-cuckoo is common throughout Australia preferring the drier open woodlands away from forested areas.
context_section_description: The main diet of the Horsfield's bronze cuckoo is insects and they are nomadic, travelling to different regions of Australia to breed and find food. Small insects are taken from leaves, branches, caught on the wing and in breeding season, Horsfield's bronze cuckoos feed each other in a courtship ritual.
  The Horsfield's bronze-cuckoo is known as a brood parasite, this means that they lay their eggs in a host species nest. They mainly parasitise the fairy-wrens in the genus Malurus. It has been well documented that the superb fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus) and the splendid fairy-wren (Malurus splendens) are the two main species to bear host to the Horsfield's bronze-cuckoo, although they may also parasitise other small Passeriformes including thornbills, warblers and scrub-wrens that can be utilised as a secondary host in certain locations.
  Although the behavioural attributes of a host species may play a role in parasitism, it is thought that the female selects its host through imprinting, remembering the species that it was raised by and ultimately using that species to raise its brood.
caption: Photographed at Capertee Valley, NSW, Australia
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