urban Topknot Pigeons?

In recents months there have have been Topknot Pigeons report from sites well into Sydney suburbia, such as Marrickville, Gladesville, Moore Park, Greenwich, where there seem to be no recent records. They’ve been in my local park in Glebe which is part of the Sydney City Local Government area. If you want to see how urban these sites are, take a look at the Google map view for Petersham: http://goo.gl/maps/5HI3a where Simon Gorta reported some yesterday.

I’m wondering is the one-off event with perhaps lack of fruit elsewhere causing the pigeons to forage into sub-optimal habitat?

Or are the forerunners of a new seasonal or even resident element in Sydney’s suburban avifauna?

Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo are an interesting analog. Two decades or so ago they were limited to Sydney bushy fringes but now quite sizeable flocks forage seasonally into the centre of Sydney. You can see flocks of YTBCs wheeling over busy Sydney roads like Anzac Parade in Kensington.

White Ibis are another interesting urbanization. A few decades ago their closest breeding to Sydney was Macquarie Marshes. Now they nest in palm Trees on busy roads in the centre of Sydney.

I’m betting Topknots will join Crested Pigeons as the second native pigeon to really urbanize in Sydney (at least seasonally) – not just in the leafy suburbs, like bronzewings etc.

Andrew ===============================

To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au

http://birding-aus.org ===============================