Food
Almost entirely insects, mostly caterpillars, but also beetles and grasshoppers. Occasionally plant material.
Voice
Male utters a repeated series of slightly husky, melow, whistles on a rising scale, 'quip-peer-peer-peeer-peeer-peer', 'quip-quip-pip-pip-pieeer' in spring. Female resonds with a drwan out, husky, sharp, 'queeeep.
Pallid Cuckoo (Cacomantis pallidus) [XC40857]
by Nigel Jackett from South Bruny Island, TAS, Australia (song)
Pallid Cuckoo (Cacomantis pallidus) [XC389392]
by Marc Anderson from Pitt Town Lagoon, New South Wales, Australia (song)
Nest
None. Egg(s) laid in that of the foster parents.
Eggs (Guide)
1; flesh-pink to salmon-buff, sometimes with a few small scattered dark specks; long-oval; about 25 x 18 mm. Incubation: 12 - 14 days; carried out by the species whose nest has been parasitised.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9