Hi all,
Whilst at Gluepot I watched as a pair of Jacky Winter performed a bonding or territorial display. I was standing on top of a treed sand dune on Track 8 at 0545 when a Jacky Winter took off from a branch in front of me and flew high into the sky. I did not hear the bird call but about 30 seconds later I saw it come back down and land on a horizontal dead branch.
A second bird then flew in and joined it and the pair began a joint display. They sat close together on the branch and went into a hunched back, rump up, wings slightly extend and tails fanned posture and reached their bills toward each other while wagging their tales from side to side. This behaviour lasted for about 3 seconds and then both birds took off and flew high, like a pair of Eurasian Skylark would. They hung for a few seconds at the top of the ascent before dropping back to a different but nearby horizontal branch. After this joint flight and a second display session both birds did one more joint flight/display session and then flew off together into the low Mallee cover on the sand dune.
The first bird may have done more than the one solo skylark-like display flight before I arrived or noticed its presence. I have put a longer report and some photos on my blog
cheers
Jenny http://jenniferspryausbirding.blogspot.com.au/ ===============================
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