Birding-Aus

Author: Birding-Aus

  • Hi Peter.

    On Thu, 9 Jul 2026, 18:24 Peter Waanders via Birding-Aus, <birding-aus@birding-aus.org> wrote:
    Hi all,
    We've had a last minute cancellation on our popular Comfortable 9 Grasswren tour starting in Mt Isa on July 25th and concluding in Adelaide on
    August 10th. The tour has very good opportunities for all 9 Grasswrens plus many other great outback birds (including Grey Falcon!) along the route to Adelaide and includes a scenic charter flight from Birdsville to Marree.

    Please enquire by return email. 
    Best regards,
    Peter
    ————————-

    Peter Waanders

    Founder, Managing Director & Senior Tour Leader at Bellbird Birding Tours 
    Owner & Managing Director at Australia-Naturally Travel

    ———
    ph/whatsapp: +61 409 763 172
    postal: PO Box 2008 BERRI SA 5343 Australia
    web: bellbirdtours.com  australianaturallytravel.com.au

    follow me on Facebook

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  • vacancy on comfortable grasswren tour in August

    Hi all,
    We've had a last minute cancellation on our popular Comfortable 9 Grasswren tour starting in Mt Isa on July 25th and concluding in Adelaide on
    August 10th. The tour has very good opportunities for all 9 Grasswrens plus many other great outback birds (including Grey Falcon!) along the route to Adelaide and includes a scenic charter flight from Birdsville to Marree.

    Please enquire by return email. 
    Best regards,
    Peter
    ————————-

    Peter Waanders

    Founder, Managing Director & Senior Tour Leader at Bellbird Birding Tours 
    Owner & Managing Director at Australia-Naturally Travel

    ———
    ph/whatsapp: +61 409 763 172
    postal: PO Box 2008 BERRI SA 5343 Australia
    web: bellbirdtours.com  australianaturallytravel.com.au

    follow me on Facebook

  • HANZAB and other Bird Books for Sale

    Hello Birding-Aus members,

    My husband and I are having a clear-out before moving back to Canberra and have a selection of Australian birding, wildlife and natural history books available for sale. All books are second-hand and in good or excellent condition.

    Available titles:

    • Australian High Country Owls – Jerry Olsen
    • HANZAB Volume 1: Ratites to Ducks (Part A)
    • HANZAB Volume 1: Ratites to Ducks (Part B)
    • Wildlife of the Box-Ironbark Country – Chris Tzaros
    • Birds & Animals of Australia's Top End – Nick Leseberg & Iain Campbell
    • Birds of the Wet Tropics of Queensland, Great Barrier Reef & Where to Find Them – Lloyd Nielsen
    • Where to See Birds in Victoria – Tim Dolby
    • The Complete Guide to Finding the Birds of Australia – Richard Thomas, Sarah Thomas, David Andrew & Alan McBride
    • Birds of Prey of Australia: A Field Guide – Stephen Debus
    • Birds of Eucalypt Forests and Woodlands: Ecology, Conservation and Management – Easton, Recher, Ford & Saunders
    • Atlas of Victorian Birds – RAOU
    • The Trials of Life – David Attenborough
    • A Handbook of the Birds of Victoria – Roy Wheeler
    • Australian Bustard – Mark Ziembicki
    • A Field Guide to Crustaceans of Australian Waters
    • A Field Guide to Frogs of Australia – Martyn Robinson
    • Wild Places of Greater Melbourne – Robin Taylor

    Please make me an offer on any (or all) of the titles listed above, as we are looking to offload quickly. The HANZAB volumes are available only as a pair and are priced at $200 for both volumes or you can make me an offer.

    I am based in Melbourne and can arrange local pickup or postage at the buyer's expense.

    If interested, please contact me off-list by emailing me at smythesmargaretjohn@gmail.com

    Thank you everyone,
    Margaret & John Smythes

  • Northern Territory




    Hi folks
    Just back from 8 days in Kakadu, Litchfield and Katherine Gorge. Not a birding trip; holiday with non-birding family, but did some birding in the margins. Saw a decent number of larger birds, but was struck by how few small insectivores I saw: zero thornbills,
    robins, fairywrens. Now its true that I was rarely looking at the best time, and its also true I am a shit birder. But I did spend time in some birdy-looking locations, and I did not even see the arses of small birds disappearing into bushes, my usual experience.
    Are such birds rarer or more wary in NT, or is this just an odd statistical anomaly. 
    Kim
    Kim Sterelny, School of Philosophy, Research School of the Social Sciences, Australian National University, Acton, 0200, ACT, Australia
    Kim.Sterelny@anu.edu.au&nbsp;
    61-(0)2-6125-2886


  • FW: Bird name

    Thank you for all your responses on this. Now please, PLEASE, to anyone with no interest in English bird names:  do not read further.

     

    Despite good intentions on all sides, we are moving into an untidy situation.  So far as I can see, the AviList taxonomy is being generally adopted, including by BirdLife Australia, for use in the online HANZAB for example.  English names are another matter. AviList has provisionally adopted the IOC English names. An AviList English Names Committee has just been formed, and its first priority is to consider English names for new species in AviList 2026.  After that, AviList ENC might be able to turn to review of adopted IOC names that create possible problems.  It is a possibility, no more than that , that ‘Australian Tern’ might be reviewed at that stage.  Perhaps BirdLife International will give support to ‘Australian Gull-billed Tern’.

     

     

    Meanwhile, for the future, so far as I know, BirdLife Australia will maintain its own list of Australian bird names (currently ‘WLAB’).  A result of this would be that Cornell Lab could continue to use that list as  a basis for names under its ‘English (Australia)’ option in eBird.  Those will be matters for BirdLife Australia and Cornell Lab.  So, some possible untidiness ahead.

     

     

     

    From: Martin Butterfield <martinflab@gmail.com&gt;
    Sent: Sunday, 24 May 2026 1:12 PM
    To: Philip Veerman <pveerman@pcug.org.au&gt;
    Cc: Geoffrey Dabb <gdabb@iinet.net.au&gt;; birding-aus@birding-aus.org
    Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Bird name

     

  • Bird name

    I would be very interested to hear what people think of the different English names for the one species that are now appearing:  sometimes  ‘Australian Gull-billed Tern’, sometimes ‘Australian Tern’.

     

  • vacancy on Kimberley trip in August

    Hi all,
    A vacancy for 1 person has arisen
    on our  "Kimberley & Black Grasswren birding tour", from 3-13 August 2026. Featuring all the local specialties, including Black Grasswren,
    Partridge Pigeon, Purple-crowned Fairy-wren, Kimberley & Red-headed
    Honeyeater, Buff-sided Robin, White-quilled Rock-pigeon, Dusky
    Gerygone, White-breasted Whistler, many finch species and more, a visit to the Broome Bird Observatory, a birding cruise on Lake Argyle and of course beautiful scenery.
    Please enquire by return email. 
    Best regards,
    Peter
    ————————-

    Peter Waanders

    Founder, Managing Director & Senior Tour Leader at Bellbird Birding Tours 
    Owner & Managing Director at Australia-Naturally Travel

    ———
    ph/whatsapp: +61 409 763 172
    postal: PO Box 2008 BERRI SA 5343 Australia
    web: bellbirdtours.com  australianaturallytravel.com.au

    follow me on Facebook

  • birding in India + Tiger

    I want to do some birding in India and also see a Tiger. Has anyone had
    experience of doing this?

    —
    John Leonard
    Canberra, Australia
    www.jleonard.net

    Make nature great again.

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  • Lord Howe island

    Hey all 

    I was wondering what was the best time to go to Lord Howe island with the crossover of different species with breeding…would love to see Providence pétrels and also White terns but not sure if they’re there at the same time and Tropicbirds…

    Is there an overlap where they’re all there at same time at some point…
    Thanks in advance 

  • Magpies in Canberra

    Today’s picture is to convey a little of the flavour of Canberra this morning. It shows the drawing (although not actually in Canberra) on which the first description of our A Magpie, in 1801, is said to be based.   Then there is a picture of our national parliament this morning, recently vacated, until 2 March, by the parliamentarians who have done their work here for the time being. The bird, the same one being shown in a small and larger version, is of the black-backed plumage type like the early drawing. This is rather unusual in Canberra where most magpies carry some sign of a mixed heritage. The perched bird is a juvenile from the family that forages on the green slopes a bit further up the hill.  It is clinging to the rope barrier that indicates that the lush green magpie-frequented slopes are closed to human traffic, at least for the time being.    Geoffrey