Chatham Islands. The matte eggs laid are olive brown in Western Australia and various shades of green or greenish white to olive to dark brown elsewhere, and do not resemble the eggs of their host. The dark pigment rubs off easily. The eggs are often dark coloured in thornbill and gerygone nests, whose eggs are likewise domed and dark. This is thought to minimise the risk of ejection by a second female cuckoo visitor to the already parasitised nest, which might overlook a dark egg when laying another egg. Several other species are occasional hosts. In Victoria in 2005, a pair of chestnut-rumped heathwren was encountered with a juvenile shining bronze cuckoo which imitated the alarm call of a baby heathwren. The introduced house sparrow and song thrush have been recorded as hosts in New Zealand. In New Caledonia, the fan-tailed gerygone (Gerygone flavolateralis) is the sole host of the species. Food and feeding Insectivorous, the shining bronze cuckoo eats insects that are avoided by other birds, such as caterpillars, particularly those of the magpie moth, and beetles, particularly ladybirds. The shining bronze cuckoo's gizzard is lined with a soft thick lining which catches the caterpillar spines; these fall away and are spat out by the bird. Predators and threats The shining bronze cuckoo falls prey to cats. It has been recorded dying after flying into windows. References Sources External links Aviceda Wildlife Services Global Bird Image gallery On the HBW Internet Bird Collection shining bronze cuckoo Birds of Oceania shining bronze cuckoo shining bronze cuckoo Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN