… are blowing through our bird names.  For more than 10 years the possibility of changing English-language bird names referring to a person (‘personal’ or ‘eponymous’ names) has been on the table.  There are no longer any ‘correct’ or standard names, so the names used are a matter for the user  – whether an  organisation … Read more

I spent a few days at a caravan oark at Berri over the week end.  I was pleasantly surprised by the numbers of duck feeding on the grassy sites put aside for tents and unpowered vehicles. Looking at them, it made me reflect.  Yes we know they breed in trees, but do they roost in them?  It would seem … Read more

Thanks for that Geoff. It's even more of a mess than I realised. I think ill just stick with intermediate.  On Wed, 1 Nov 2023, 09:30 Geoffrey Dabb, <gdabb@iinet.net.au> wrote: Hello Tony   I hope the below will not make it even more complicated.   It will depend on which taxonomic list you follow. If … Read more

It was in 2014 that Birdlife International resurrected Gould’s Plumed Egret.  This was followed five years later by Birdlife Australia in its WLAB v.3.  According to the theory behind that, you only (or just about only) find Intermediate Egrets to Australia’s north. I know from bird hide conversations that this particular taxonomic update has been … Read more

Hi. I'm in Drummoyne (Sydney) where there was a flock of Pied Currawongs about 6 weeks ago when trees in the (small!) Bob Smith Reserve were fruiting. I didn't try to count them but there were certainly more than 20. They were in and around the Reserve, very active and vocal, for at least 2 weeks. When they … Read more