G’day everyone,
Andrew’s post below got me thinking about how often I see Superb and Variegated Fairy-wrens around my local area. I see SFW’s quite often, but hardly ever see VFW, though I thought that this may be because I spend less time in denser areas where I remember seeing the VFW’s and more time in more open areas where I see the SFW’s. There is a rather friendly population at Longy that I always see in and around the small shrubs and bushes, but in the past 2 years that I’ve been frequenting the area I don’t remember seeing a VFW around there. I’m just wondering if anyone knows if there is must of a difference between these 2 species and their preferred environments and the food they like etc? Would I necessarily find SFW where I see VFW and vice versa?
Regards, Mark
On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 9:58 AM, Andrew Taylor
> On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 06:46:56PM +0930, Chris Watson wrote: > > > > I expect Harry Recher is right about most of what he says but he can be > careless about facts. In the video he suggests that Superb Fairy Wren > have gone from abundant to rare in Sydney over the last 40 years – saying > it was the second bird he saw stepping off the ship in Sydney but you’d > to struggle find one now in the suburbs of Sydney. This is incorrect, > wrens are still conspicuous in many Sydney suburbs and surveys show this: > http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/surveys/results-superb-fairy-wren.cfm > I’m not sure where in Sydney Harry Recher’s ship arrived, but you can > still see wrens at King St Wharf where the cruise ships dock in the CBD. > > Its hard to say how SFW abundance has changed in Sydney suburbia in > the period Harry Recher is talking about without data like the Backyard > Bird survey for past decades. Ricki Coughlan posted here details a few > years ago of a wren survey on the Northern Beaches where I recall SFW > were absent or very scarce in quite a few suburbs, but SFW do seem to > do well in the denser inner suburbs. > > I’ve noticed this carelessness before. Years ago Harry Recher put in > a paper: “Red Wattlebird which were abundant in suburban Sydney > gardens as recently as the 1970s are now rare”. Again not true, > over much of Sydney, Red Wattlebirds are common & conspicuous: > http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/surveys/results-backyards-autumn2006.cfm > > Andrew > =============================== > > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, > send the message: > unsubscribe > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) > to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au > > http://birding-aus.org > =============================== > ===============================
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Hi Mark,
Although I have seen Superb, Variegated and Red-backed Fairy-wrens in mixed flocks in the Clarence Valley, north coast NSW, they usually prefer different habitats. Red-backs love grasslands with some shrubs, particularly where Blady Grass grows. VFWs prefer thick undergrowth such as low heathland and areas with Bracken Fern and Superbs can tolerate more open environments like open wetlands and woodlands as long as there is enough cover to avoid predators and to find a nesting site. This is generalising but you would not expect VFWs to be as common in modified environments as Superbs.
Regards
Greg Clancy Ecologist and Birding Guide Coutts Crossing NSW