Subspecies Chalcites lucidus lucidus (Gmelin, 1788)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Cuculus lucidus Gmelin, J.F. 1788. Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Linné, editio decima tertia, aucta, reformata. Regnum Animalium. Leipzig (Lipsiae) : G.E. Beer Vol. 1(1) 1-500 pp. [For publication date Duncan, F.M. 1937. On the dates of publication of the Society's 'Proceedings', 1859–1926. With an appendix containing the dates of publication of 'Proceedings', 1830–1858, compiled by the late F.H. Waterhouse, and of the 'Transactions', 1833–1869, by the late Henry Peavot, originally published in P.Z.S. 1893, 1913. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 107: 71–84] [421] [based on the Shining Cuckow on p. 528 and pl.XXIII in Latham, J. 1782. A General Synopsis of Birds. London : B. White Vol. 1 vi 788 pp. I–XXXV pls [Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.], in turn copied from G. Forster drawing no. 57 in BMNH, cited by Sharpe, R.B. 1906. Birds. pp. 79–515 in, The History of the Collections contained in the Natural History Departments of the British Museum. London : British Museum Vol. 2. (182) and taken from a specimen collected on James Cook's last voyage to Australasia, see Lysaght, A. 1959. Some eighteenth century bird paintings in the library of Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820). Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History Hist.) (6 1: 235–371; Stresemann, E. 1950. Birds collected during Capt. James Cook's last expedition (1776–1780). Auk 67: 66–88; material since lost, see Sharpe, R.B. 1906. Birds. pp. 79–515 in, The History of the Collections contained in the Natural History Departments of the British Museum. London : British Museum Vol. 2.; Whitehead, P.J.P. 1969. Zoological specimens from Captain Cook's voyages. Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History 5: 161–201 [Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp. Mathews, G.M. 1927. Systema Avium Australasianarum. A systematic list of the birds of the Australasian region. London : British Ornithologists' Union Pt 1 iv 426 pp.]].

  Type data:

   Holotype whereabouts unknown (lost, figured on G. Forster drawing no. 57 (Vol. 1) in BMNH), Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand (as nova Zeelandia).

  Type locality references:

  Sharpe, R.B. 1906. Birds. pp. 79–515 in, The History of the Collections contained in the Natural History Departments of the British Museum. London : British Museum Vol. 2. [182] (as Charlotte Sound, under Cuculus nitens G.R. Forster, 1844).
• Lamprococcyx lucidus australis Mathews, G.M. 1916. In Proceedings of meeting of British Ornithologists' Club, May 10, 1916. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 36: 82-83 [83] [type locality subsequently modified by Mathews, G.M. 1918. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 7 pt 4 pp. 321–384 pls 352–362 [19 Dec. 1918] (349), followed by Hartert, E. & Stresemann, E. 1925. Ueber die indoaustralischen Glanzkuckucke (Chalcites). Novitates Zoologicae 32: 158–163; Peters, J.L. 1940. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 4 xii 291 pp.; Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia Pt 1 Non-passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp., but evidently based on a different specimen without type status].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 626843 unsexed (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 1458), Queensland
  Comment: for identification of holotype, see Greenway, J.C. 1978. Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Pt 2. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 161: 1–306.

  Type locality references:

  Greenway, J.C. 1978. Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Pt 2. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 161: 1-306 (cf. Peters, J.L. 1940. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 4 xii 291 pp.; Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia Pt 1 Non-passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp.).

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Mayr, E. 1932. Birds collected during the Whitney South Sea Expedition. XIX Notes on the Bronze Cuckoo Chalcites lucidus and its subspecies. American Museum Novitates 520: 1-9 [2]

Generic Combinations

• Chalcites (Chalcites) lucidus lucidus (Gmelin, 1788).

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria

Extra Distribution Information

Passage migrant along coastal E Australia and eastern territorial islands.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones

IBRA

NSW, Qld, Vic: Australian Alps (AA), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Flinders (FLI), Gulf Plains (GUP), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), NSW North Coast (NNC), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Coastal Plain (SCP), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Wet Tropics (WT)

IMCRA

Lord Howe Province (14), Norfolk Island Province (21)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Lord Howe Island
  • New South Wales: SE coastal
  • Norfolk Island
  • Queensland: N Gulf, NE coastal
  • Victoria: SE coastal

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, closed forest, diurnal, low open woodland, migratory, open forest, open heath, open scrub, tall forest, tall open shrubland, volant, woodland.

Extra Ecological Information

Arthropod-feeder, gregarious/randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder, solitary or in loose flocks of up to 200–300 prior to migration, feeds by perch-and-pounce sallying, taking insects and their larvae, flies swiftly and directly in shallow undulations, passage migrant in Australia and its territories between Feb.-Mar. and Aug.-Sept. en route to summer breeding quarters in New Zealand and Chatham Ils and winter quarters across eastern Papuasia and Melanesia to Polynesia.

General References

Gill, B.J. 1983. Morphology and migration of Chrysococcyx lucidus, an Australasian cuckoo. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 10: 371-382 (movements, distribution, taxonomy)

Robertson, C.J.R. (consultant ed.) 1985. Reader's Digest Complete Book of New Zealand Birds. Sydney : Reader's Digest 319 pp. (morphology, nidification, voice, diet, distribution)

History of changes