When I visited Mahango Game Park in January this year, I witnessed this intriguing courtship feeding process. Apart from the fact that feeding chicks is not part of the cuckoo family’s habits, I was amazed by the sheer efficacy and speed at which the courtship feeding took place. My initial thought was that the male was actually taking over the function of raising their young, but then I realised that the “chick” was an adult female Diederik Cuckoo. The female and chick do look pretty much the same, except that the bill is brown, not red (as can be seen on the pictures), which apparently is diagnostic for a female in comparison to the immature Diederik Cuckoo. TN