Birding-Aus

Month: December 2019

  • Birding-Aus Digest, Vol 74, Issue 5

    Re Shrike-tit split.

    Hi Dave,
    The split into Eastern, Western and Northern Shrike-tits has been mooted for decades based on distribution and colour
    differences, the latter are minor but definite.
    Why Birdlife has split them is questionable. The split makes it harder for twitchers, the Northern form has eluded us on many visits but is still on the bucket list.
    Even chromosome analysis can be open to interpretation, but have these be done on Shrike-tits?
    ” Subspecies” is probably more appropriate, but lacks some of the advantages of full speciation, particularly Conservation, which probably doesn’t apply here.

    Michael

    Sent from my iPhone

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    > 1. Shrike-tit split (Dave Torr)
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    >
    > ———————————————————————-
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    > Message: 1
    > Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2019 14:23:10 +1100
    > From: Dave Torr < davidtorr@gmail.com>
    > To: birding-aus <     birding-aus@birding-aus.org>
    > Subject: [Birding-Aus] Shrike-tit split
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    > I discovered a few days ago that BirdLife Australia have split the
    > Shrike-tit in their latest list (
    >     www.birdlife.org.au/conservation/science/taxonomy) and this happened
    > back in August, I have seen no reference to this on Birding-Aus so can I
    > assume that most people do not use that taxonomy – the only reason I
    > noticed is that I maintain birdlifephotography.org.au which uses it!
    > It is not listed as a potential split for IOC, which is the list I use.
    > Feedback welcomed!
    > Dave
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  • Shrike-tit split

    I discovered a few days ago that BirdLife Australia have split the Shrike-tit in their latest list (http://www.birdlife.org.au/conservation/science/taxonomy) and this happened back in August, I have seen no reference to this on Birding-Aus so can I assume that most people do not use that taxonomy – the only reason I noticed is that I maintain birdlifephotography.org.au which uses it!
    It is not listed as a potential split for IOC, which is the list I use.
    Feedback welcomed!
    Dave

  • Birdpedia – Australia – Weekly Digest

    The following is a digest of Sightings Reported on Birdpedia for the period Monday, December 9, 2019 to Sunday, December 15, 2019:

    Area: SA

    Location: Adelaide botanic garden

    Little Grassbird (Megalurus gramineus) (1) The little grassbird has been calling from the rushes surrounding one of the storage ponds next to First Creek wetland for a couple of months. It has never shown itself so far.

    Australian Reed-Warbler (Acrocephalus australis) (1) Today the grassbird was joined by an Australian reed warbler, which I have never heard or seen there before, although the reeds and rushes are thick and ideal habitat. It was not doing its usual hiding track, rather hopping between the tops of chopped-off rushes calling the meanwhile.

    Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus funereus) (2) Black cockatoos have been flying over the botanic gardens for weeks, in ones and twos, and also over nearby suburbs. A couple of days ago one flew south across North Terrace, and today two were flying over St Peters College towards the botanic gardens.

    Australian Wood Duck (Chenonetta jubata) (1) While walking over one of the lawns a female wood duck rushed at me and attacked my leg ! I had failed to notice the 8 tiny ducklings and their dad grazing on the grass.

    Australasian Grebe (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae) (2) I was given the unenviable task of getting rid of a large juicy caterpillar that had been caught eating small plants in the new seed orchard. So I tossed it to a grebe, that made a quick grab. Whether the grebe actually ate it I couldn’t tell. Anyway, it would not be eating any more plants

    Volunteering in the botanic gardens always brings some entertainment from the birdlife. Last week I had to chase off a family of magpies determined to uproot seedlings in the seedbank nursery.

    Reported by: Barbara and Peter Bansemer on Wednesday, December 11, 2019

    ———————————————

    Date: Friday, December 13, 2019

    Location: On our Rockleigh property

    Hooded Robin (Melanodryas cucullata) (2) Species number 90, a pair of hooded robins ! Our neighbour to the north has seen hooded robins on his place, but this was a first for Crooked Tree.

    Also present was a restless flycatcher, which is an occasional visitor, 2 common bronzewings, also not common, and rainbow bee-eaters were calling but not seen. The white-browed babblers were there and can probably be counted as resident as they are almost always seen. A group of about 6 red-rumps made an appearance.

    But only 16 species were seen, including a raptore that was probably a brown falcon but too far away to be sure. Numbers of each species were low, probably due to the dryness of everything. Something (rabbits ? roos?) has eaten leaves off our fire-break succulents, and roos have eaten down the bullrushes in the springs in the adjacent water reserve. There is not a blade of green grass anywhere

    Reported by: Barbara and Peter Bansemer on Friday, December 13, 2019

    ———————————————

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  • Australian Shelduck.

    Hi all there were 2 female Australian Shelducks at Pitt Town Lagoon this morning a fairly rare bird for Sydney.
    Cheers Michael.
    Sent from my Samsung GALAXY S5 on the Telstra Mobile network

  • book wanted

    Anyone have a copy of “Peregrines of the World” (Lynx) that you might be ready to let go of ?

    Judith 
    SEQ 500m

    —
    JudithLA

  • Fwd: update pallid cuckoos

    I would like to suggest what is probably happening. Firstly it would be very strange and hard to imagine how it can ever happen that two juvenile Pallid Cuckoos are being fed by the same individual foster parents. The cuckoo chicks could be siblings (same actual parents – or not) but raised in separate foster nests. However there could easily be two juvenile Pallid Cuckoos (that were from different nests), being fed by different individual foster parents, that just happen to be located near to each other and maybe interacting. I can even imagine that it could happen that the foster parents might possibly get confused between the two young cuckoos and sometimes feed the wrong one. But I appreciate it would also be hard for you to pick if that is happening.

     

    Philip

     

    From: Birding-Aus [I would like to suggest what is probably happening. Firstly it would be very strange and hard to imagine how it can ever happen that two juvenile Pallid Cuckoos are being fed by the same individual foster parents. The cuckoo chicks could be siblings (same actual parents – or not) but raised in separate foster nests. However there could easily be two juvenile Pallid Cuckoos (that were from different nests), being fed by different individual foster parents, that just happen to be located near to each other and maybe interacting. I can even imagine that it could happen that the foster parents might possibly get confused between the two young cuckoos and sometimes feed the wrong one. But I appreciate it would also be hard for you to pick if that is happening.

     

    Philip

     

  • Fwd: update pallid cuckoos

    ———- Forwarded message ———
    From: Gary Wright <gary.wright.email@gmail.com>
    Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2019 at 09:34
    Subject: update pallid cuckoos
    To: <birding-aus-request@birding-aus.org>
    both fledgings are spending time within 10 metres of each other.  There appear to be 3-4 spiny cheeks in attendance.  Not possible to tell if they are feeding both birds or just their 'own'.
    One bird appears younger than the other-smaller, flight weaker, much more white on back and weaker call.  flickers its wings more often.
    Gary

  • pallid cuckoo fledgings Wilmington SA

    On Wed, 4 Dec 2019 at 08:27, Gary Wright <gary.wright.email@gmail.com> wrote:
    A few days ago a pallid cuckoo fledging announced itself in our yard by its constant calling.  Upon locating it we found a pair of spiny cheeked honeyeaters feeding  it.  We didn't hear it yesterday and wondered where it had got to.  When I heard it this morning I tracked it down and as I was watching it sitting on top of the bower another pallid cuckoo flew over my head!
    Both birds are being fed by spiny cheeked honeyeaters.
    I wonder how far apart they were raised?  Are they siblings?  Our garden is probably the area with the most resources in Wilmington where we live.  A lot of trees and bushes and ponds.   We join on to 20 acres of bushland but our garden has much higher diversity of birds than the bushland.  It may be that these two pallids have just found the best feeding areas or they were eggs close together and close to here.
    I have the impression that the spiny cheeked foster parents are quite bonded to the pallids.   They are not nestlings with yellow gape showing.  They fly and spiny cheeks follow with food.  Pallids are making no attempt to feed themselves-just cheep.  It seems to me quite natural for the spiny cheeks to become attached to their foster children.
    The pallids are a welcome addition to the garden.
    Gary