Shining Bronze-Cuckoo Associating with and Imitating Alarm Call of Chestnut-rumped Heathwren

Abstract

We describe an observation of a juvenile Shining Bronze-Cuckoo Chrysococcyx lucidus being attended by a pair of Chestnut-rumped Heathwrens Hylacola pyrrhopygia, apparently the first record of this cuckoo–host association. An alarm call given by the young Cuckoo appeared identical to that of the female Heathwren, and we suggest that this was a case of vocal mimicry.