Is it ... or isn't it ?

Is this a Redchested Cuckoo - commonly called a 'Piet-my-vrou' ?




There was a pair of them near the top of my poor dying-off confer the other day. Couldn't really get a clear photo - no time to get the tripod. They have been around before calling each other from branch to branch and tree to tree but I have never been able to get a photo.

According to my bird book, they (if it is the Redchested Cuckoo) shouldn't be around at this time of the year but I have this morning, heard the Birchell's Cuckoo cuckooing in the thicket of the large shrubs ... so if this is the Redchested Cuckoo, it wouldn't surprise me. I have always heard of this species of bird which apparently is quite common here but I have never seen one.

Our weather is very strange at the moment with unseasonal clouds and rain .. so maybe all the birdies are confused too!!!