Frans Gunterus, QPSA  


Mother Prenjak feeds a Cuckoo Chick by Frans Gunterus, QPSA

November 2024 - Mother Prenjak feeds a Cuckoo Chick

About the Image(s)

Canon EOS R6, 1/500 sec at f6.3, ISO 2000. Sigma Lens 150-600 F5-6.3 DG OS HSM (Contemporary 015).

This Cuckoo Chick was fed by another species of a mother bird. In this case was Javan Prenjak. A family of Sylviidae. You might find another picture. Another species of mother bird feeds the same kind of Cuckoo Chicks. You might be wandering how can it be? In Indonesia, we call Cuckoo bird as Kedasih. Its scientific name is Surniculus. Cuckoo birds have some sort of ‘evilest attitude’. The cunning adult cuckoo takes over a warbler's nest to lay its own eggs. If you are interested, you can see their actions from the following link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAU5MTXmAPY&t=15s .

Then, the newborn cuckoo's instinct is to remove from its adopted nest any of the warbler's eggs. But more sinister is cuckoo's removal of the warbler's own newborn chick. You can see how the baby cuckoo did it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgIL8dbSMUA

In this picture. The mother Prenjak (and also the father). Both did not realize that they feed the Cuckoo Chick that awfully crafty murdered their real baby chicks. That’s why. There is a myth of the Kedasih Bird in Indonesia. It is believed to be a sign of someone's impending death.


This round’s discussion is now closed!
6 comments posted




Ginny Salus   Ginny Salus
Other than the fascinating story about the duplicity of the birds there are several things that draw my attention. The colors of the background and foreground are generally the same but they work together! The hazy background sets the two birds off beautifully. The grasses form a wonderful framing of the birds. Great job and thank you for sharing.   Posted: 11/03/2024 15:33:18
Frans Gunterus   Frans Gunterus
Ginny, thanks for your good words.   Posted: 11/05/2024 00:29:33



Barbara Eddy   Barbara Eddy
Well done Frans,

Like Ginny, I love the framing. Thanks also for sharing the natural history of the birds. In the use we have the brown-headed cowbird that also has this behavior. Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.   Posted: 11/04/2024 14:38:45
Frans Gunterus   Frans Gunterus
Hi Barbara. Thanks for sharing cowbird story. I have just realize there is another bird that have the same behavior.   Posted: 11/05/2024 00:32:18



Dan McKenna   Dan McKenna
Very nice Frans. My only suggestion is to tone done the highlights very slightly to balance the exposure. Just a very nice story you created.   Posted: 11/04/2024 22:56:19
Frans Gunterus   Frans Gunterus
Hi Dan. Thanks for your observants. Indeed, the lighting condition was a bit too harsh. My camera dynamic range was not good enough to capture the highlights. There are many OE areas in my raw file. As a result, I have to dim out the OE spots, but brightened the shadows one-by-one by using luminosity mask.   Posted: 11/05/2024 00:51:36
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