Page 6 - Cornwall issue 1 2024

THE BIG PICTURE

PIET-MY-VROU

he Piet-my-vrou (Eng. Red- throughout the area except for the its eggs in other birds’ nests, leaving
chested cuckoo), is one of the drier west. In Afrikaans it is known as the parasitised birds to care for
Tbirds I have always wanted to “Piet-my-vrou”, after its call. the cuckoo chicks, which they do,
see, especially since I started my bird believing it is their own offspring.
photography hobby three years ago. The Red-chested cuckoo is usually
I love how it’s so vocal and yet so solitary and highly vocal, living The Red-chested cuckoo is a common
difficult to spot. It’s like it’s playing a in forests and plantations. It eats bird in South Africa, but it is rare to
game of hide-and-seek with us. insects such as hairy caterpillars, see. The bird’s preferred habitats are
spiders, centipedes, millipedes, woodlands, and it is normally seen by
But then I saw it for the first time in slugs, snails, small vertebrates and itself rather than in the company of
my garden in December last year, berries. The bird takes on more than birds of the same species.
and I managed to get a photograph a single mate (it is polygamous) and
of it; it was very high up in a tree lays eggs which are brown
and the image was just so-so. To in colour and number
my delight, I encountered it for a between 20 eggs per
second time only two weeks later at season in different
the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens nests! Like other
in Johannesburg, where I managed cuckoos, the
to get the photographs that you see Red-chested
here. To say I was thrilled to bits cuckoo
would be an understatement! lays

According to my research, the Red-
chested cuckoo is a medium-sized
bird found in Africa, south of the
Sahara. It is a common breeding
migrant in Southern Africa, found

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: WWW.IVANMULLERPHOTOGRAPHY.COM VISIT MY INSTAGRAM
PAGE TO SEE MORE OF MY BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY AT: IVANS.BIRD.PICS.
4 Cornwall View • Issue 1 2024