Dear all,
I have just had a report from Uralla, NSW, of a flock of eight Rainbow Bee-eaters flying north. The observers thought it was rather late for them to still be in the area.
Regards Shirley Cook
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And a third reason is that they are on migration to winter in New Guinea. They can be seen flying across Torres Strait in large numbers going north now and returning in just 3-4 months time.
Mike Carter 30 Canadian Bay Road Mount Eliza VIC 3930 Tel (03) 9787 7136
I must add that these birds were flying north
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Thought I should report my recent exp with this species; many hundreds possibly thousands calling from really high (not visible) even with cursory use of bins but calls very distinctive – birds calling for at least 20 mins on 30th April over south Lismore Regards Bob moffatt
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Hi Dom, I would hazard to guess that the increased numbers of Rainbow Bee-eaters around Cairns would be due to probably 2 things…
Firstly there are many birds from more southern parts of the country that regularly winter up here that would be arriving the past month or so, & this combined with very many young first year birds that we see up here en-masse after summer, could probably be just 2 reasons why you are seeing more birds than normal. The dune scrubs along the Northern Beaches suburbs of Cairns (Yorkey’s Knob is one of these for those reading not from the area) are a major breeding area for the species, with a great deal of the birds burrowing into very flat sandy ground behind the beaches – indeed many nest on nature strips in the streets one or 2 blocks back from the beaches!!
We are very fortunate to have such a beautiful species up here in such numbers in out streets!!
Cheers for now, Martin Cachard Cairns
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Dominic, The largest flock I’ve ever seen was only 30 birds, and that was over 20 years ago in SA. But a couple of folk attending last Saturday’s outing of BirdLife Sunshine Coast reported seeing a flock of around 200 Rainbow Bee-eaters at Dulong, a few kms west of Nambour, in the previous week.
Russ Lamb, Maleny,SEQ