Fwd: small birds

So I’ve spent a little time going through my 20-year sightings diary, & find that (leaving aside the occasionals or uncommons) there are more common / resident spp. whose decline I have not mentioned yet. These are – Whipbird, quail & button-quail spp., Bush Stone-Curlew, Grey Shrike-Thrush, Magpie-Lark (seasonal), as well as the spp. noted earlier & those below.

In the 20 years there has been little change in local habitat, though I would say that the human population has increased as more people have put houses on their land. Also there are more cars passing through, & noise has increased. This is post-dairy country, interspersed with post(historic)-logging bush fragments. Much of the open land (including my own place) has increased trees, groundcover &/ understory.

Climate has varied.

Judith
SEQ 500m

Begin forwarded message:
> From: Judith L-A < jlukin01@gmail.com>
> Date: 18 April 2018 at 5:05:36 pm AEST
> To: birding-aus@birding-aus.org
> Subject: Re: small birds
>
> PS: & Drongos & Dollarbirds, which I keep failing to mention. A very noticeable new scarcity here too is the Pheasant Coucal, whose calls used to reverberate all day long (along with the Koels’), all through the summer… Each year now the stillness grows exponentially.
>
> Judith
> SEQ 500m
>
>> On 18 Apr 2018, at 12:24 pm, Judith L-A < jlukin01@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Yes, the small birds are struggling with the conditions, here too. With shifts in the seasons, all species up to & incl. wattlebird-sized birds have diminished. Disappearing for long periods of intensified or unseasonal weather, they return only in single pairs, if at all, so far, with only the previously most common / residents reappearing in the gaps between weather events. This was first obvious with the great flock of Rainbow Lorikeets that had built up nearby – It has been several years since ex-TC Debbie removed the colony, & the birds only began appearing in small numbers again recently. On the smaller scale, the other most common residents that are scarce presently are Lewin’s H/e, Brown Thornbill, White-b Scrubwren. Two butcherbird spp. alternate seasonally here usually, but are both scarce just now. Even the kookaburras, frogmouths, figbirds are diminished … I won’t go on except to say that the seasonal or occasional species are now absent (or rare at best) – e.g. N.Friarbirds, Spinebills & Scarlet H/e; G.Fantails, W.Wagtails; pardalotes; cuckoos & swifts; Crimson Rosella, Galah, & other parrots –
>>
>> Judith
>> SEQ 500m
>> ​jlukin01@postoffice.csu.edu.au
>>
>>