The bronze-cuckoos of Australia are a group of small, inconspicuous cuckoos with metallic-green highlights on the dorsal feathers, barred undersides, and (often) red eyes.   They are nest parasites of small passerines (thornbills, robins, fairy-wrens, etc.).   This is the shining bronze-cuckoo; it was photographed in a small woodland in Wollongong, on the coast of New South Wales near Wollongong.
           A close relative of the shining bronze-cuckoo is the somewhat less colorful Horsefield's bronze cuckoo.

• Canon 40D, 500 mm IS lens plus 1.4X extender, fill-in flash (2009)