Brown Cuckoo-Dove
Macropygia amboinensis
Columbidae
The Brown Cuckoo-Dove was once called the ‘Pheasant-tailed Pigeon’ because of its long tail, which is sometimes used as a counterbalance or as a support when foraging in the treetops, especially when hanging upside down or making some other acrobatic manoeuvre to reach a distant fruit or berry. The species seldom feeds on the ground, though occasionally takes grit from the forest floor, when it walks with a waddling gait, with its body erect and tail raised slightly so that it is clear of the ground.
Description
The Brown Cuckoo-Dove is a large brown pigeon of rainforests, with a very long, tapering tail. There is a pale streak below the blue-grey eye and a red eye-ring. The female has a brighter chestnut cap and a scaly pattern on the breast. The legs and feet are red. Their flight is strong and graceful, usually low among the trees. This species is also known as the Brown, Pheasant or Large-tailed Pigeon.
Distribution
The Brown Cuckoo-Dove is found throughout north-eastern and eastern Queensland, including off-shore islands, and eastern coastal areas of New South Wales. Its range is expanding down the coast of New South Wales. This species is also found from the Philippines, south through Borneo to Sumatra, through the Moluccas and Sulawesi to New Guinea.
Habitat
This is a pigeon of rainforests and wet sclerophyll forest, particularly at the forest edges, along creeks and rivers. Brown Cuckoo-Doves are often found in regrowth along roads, in clearings and in weedy areas like lantana.
Feeding
Brown Cuckoo-Doves feed on fruit, berries and seeds from a variety of rainforest trees, shrubs and vines. They usually feed in the trees in the early morning and the late afternoon, often hanging upside down to reach fruit. They come to the ground to drink and to eat grit. They can digest very hard seeds.
Breeding
Brown Cuckoo-Doves nest in rainforest trees, shrubs and the tops of vines and ferns, with the nest being a scanty collection of twigs and sticks placed sideways on a branch. The young are covered with long thick down when first hatched. Both parents share the incubation and care of the young.
The cache is NOT at the posted coordinates
This Wherigo converts your player into a virtual version of the "Reverse Cache Box" which tells you the bearing to the cache, but not the distance. You may begin your search from any spot in the world using your Smartphone or Whereigo compatible GPS to navigate to the cache.
**As the cartridge produces whole number degrees, the triangulation is not accurate from long distances especially if the 2 readings are taken close together producing an acute angle at intersection, so don't be disheartened by a GZ that seems wrong, go near there and take more readings.**
The cartridge was created by day1976 and is available to download from the wherigo website. day1976's Open Source Reverse Wherigo .
Start up the player, find and load the cartridge. > NewGame > Find a Geocache > Answer > Enter First Code > xxxxx > Answer > Enter Second Code > xxxxx > Answer > The bearing to this Geocache is xxx degrees. This bearing is from where you are standing. It is now up to you how many times you relocate and obtain different bearings so as to triangulate the cache. The ultimate goal would be to find the cache with just one bearing reading, but for most, it would need a minimum of two bearings. Bearings are with respect to True North, so If using an OS map, allowances will have to be made, as Grid North, Magnetic North, and True North are all different!
To begin, you will have to type these two codes into your player when prompted:
jl3n9
h86qa
It is suggested that you take the code with you on your journey. It will be needed if it becomes necessary to restart your player for any reason.
Have Fun!
How to download the Whereigo Cartridge
You may begin your search from any spot in the world using a Whereigo compatible GPS unit or phone app.
Link to day1976's Open Source Reverse Wherigo cartridge.
Log into wherigo.com using your geocaching.com player name and password. The cartridge type used on phone apps is the Pocket PC Device.