We have had a couple of visits from this interesting bird recently. Yes, it may be ugly and noisy, but we love seeing different things in the trees outside our loungeroom window. What our bird book says (abridged) about this bird is:

A huge cuckoo, with huge bill giving more the appearance of a hornbill. This is a migratory species; breeds in Australia in spring and summer and migrates to NG, Indonesia and other northern islands for the winter. On arrival in Australia about Sep-Oct, the Channel-billed Cuckoo makes its presence obvious with loud raucous calls. The Channel-billed Cuckoo uses currawongs, magpies and crows as hosts. With the huge bill extending the body length forward, in flight this species looks from below like a flying cross; the body is well over half a metre long and the wingspan approaches one metre. Channel-billed Cuckoos feed principally on fruit, but also take insects, espeecially large insects such as locusts; they have also been reported to feed on eggs and nestlings of other birds.

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