Besides maths, I am also interested in natural things.
The last few days i have been really treated.
There was a bird making an almight ruckus in the gum tree at the front of my surburban house (in Sydney, Australia).
The bird was easy to find. It was a baby Channel-Billed Cuckoo. These birds are huge.
Just like other cuckoos, Channel-Billed Cuckoos don't bother with parenting their babies. They just lay their egg in some other unsuspecting birds nest.
When they hatch the baby cuckoo usually pushes the other babies out of the nest so that they die. Apparently Channel-Billed Cuckoos don't do this but they are so huge, the natural youngsters die of starvation instead.
The Channel-Bill Cuckoo parisitises the nest of Magpies and Currawongs. Both these birds are big. (The Australian magpie is at least twice the size of a UK magpie.)
but they are dwarfed when they are put beside a Channel-Billed Cuckoo.
Just look at these photos.
The bottom one has baby plumage.
Channel-Billed Cuckoo.JPG
Currawong feeding a Channel-Billed Cuckoo.JPG
The poor Currawong parents are totally frazzled! Just show this photo to your parents when they complain about school holidays. Show them how lucky they really are!!
Want more info ?
Channel-Billed Cuckoo
(also has a sound file for the Channel-Billed Cuckoo and the Currawong.)
http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Scythrops-novaehollandiae
Pied Currawong
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pied_Currawong
+118687 
