Hi all
I was interested to see a couple of recent records of this great little species in western Sydney listed on Eremaea. Edwin Vella mentioned that his 17 Jun record and another from Keith Brandwood were the only records he was aware of for western Sydney. In the 1970s, probably around 1978, as a very young birder I was excited to find this species and get very close views on a family friends’ property at Kenthurst in thick melaleuca scrub along a creek line in open forest where Red-browed Finches were common and Double-barreds also present. I don’t recall exactly which street this property was on. With a lot of large properties and quite a bit of natural vegetation remaining in this area, a lot of it on private land, and north to the Hawkesbury through areas like Maraylya, Cattai National Park, Mitchell Park and Maroota/Canoelands to the east, its quite possible the species still survives in Sydney’s northwest.
Do other Birding-aus readers have records from the Sydney area other than the known populations to the south in Royal National Park and further west in the Blue Mountains?
Eric Finley ===============================
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Eric, When I was gathering records for a report on birds of Greater Southern Sydney – see the link here http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/threatenedspecies/07471tpagssvol2pt4birds1.pdf I obviously managed to obtain a few records from Western Sydney, though I could obviously validate few though this usually meant they were historic (often Museum records) or spatially inaccurate (and often both). I actually recall being surprised at how few records were from the Blue Mountains (though our study area didn’t cover all potential sites). I wrote the profile and still believe this species is probably declining and is worthy of listing on the Threatened Species Act. However, they certainly do move about and turn up in the odd strange spot – I personally saw them near the swamp (can’t recall the name) in Seven Mile Beach NP near Shoalhaven Heads – I am not aware of any other records from that area and at the time I thought it was odd habitat. Cheers, Peter
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