The latest edition of Birds in the News #76 has been posted.
The featured photo this week is a male Superb Bird of Paradise performing a courtship display to a plain brown female. Stunning colours and feather pattern – it is hard to believe it is actually a bird!
Here is another list of links to excellent birding sites:
I rose early this morning so I could go for a walk. I left the house just after sunrise. The air was crisp and cool and I was pleased it had not yet warmed up to the forecast temperature.
I decided to take the route along the road up the hill from our home. Because it was early there was very little traffic. This meant I could concentrate on the bird life. I was quite delighted with the busy activity of so many birds all around me.
Just as I approached a bush on the road side I was aware of a sudden flapping. A Singing Honeyeater shot like an arrow from the bush closely pursued by a Collared Sparrowhawk. They flew to another bush on the opposite side of the road. The honeyeater was too quick for the hawk and escaped. The hawk wheeled around, flew back in front of me and then off to look for another potential meal.
As I continued my walk I noticed the sparrow-hawk eyeing off a small flock of Common Starlings nearby. I hope he had more luck with them and eventually caught some breakfast.
The photo below was taken last year, possibly of the same bird. If it is the same bird it is a frequent visitor to our garden.
Updated November 2013.
Collared Sparrowhawk
- Gregarious: some birds live in groups and are said to be gregarious. One such species is the White-Winged Chough. They are usually seen in groups of from 5 to 10, though the family group that visits my garden has been up to 12 in size. I have seen larger groups than that in other places.
There is some truth in the saying “birds of a feather flock together.” In Australia it is quite common to see large flocks of birds of the one species. There are few sights as beautiful as a flock of several hundred pink Galahs wheeling through the deep blue Australian sky. Corellas and cockatoos also flock together, feeding together on the ground in large groups numbering in the hundreds, or even thousands.
Galah
Another amazing sight is to see a large flock of budgerigars feeding together. As they fly off – sometimes in their thousands – it is like a swiftly moving green cloud before your eyes. When such a flock lands in a dead tree, it suddenly seems to spring back to life once again.
Budgerigars, Cleland Wildlife Park
Some of our finches are also quite gregarious. These flocks may only number in the dozens but in their own small way can be just as spectacular. They bring great delight to the observer when such groups visit a watering point (such as a bird bath) or a feeding tray in a park or someone’s garden.
Zebra Finch
Waterbirds can also be said to be gregarious, their numbers can often be in the thousands. Rafts of ducks, mudflats seething with waders and nesting cormorants in their thousands can be an inspiring sight and an attack on the ears (and nose in the case of cormorants).
Over the last few weeks I have featured many birding bloopers from birders all over Australia and even some from overseas. These have generally first appeared on the Birding-Aus forum. I have been very amused at the problems some birders have, including myself, in identifying birds. I have also been impressed with the willingness of birders to be embarrassed in public in this way.
Here is #17 in this series, but with a happy ending:
I had a classic with a tour group up in PNG, when I spied a far distant Black Sicklebill (largest of the Birds of Paradise and pretty rare in accessible areas as they get shot for their long tail plumes) atop a snag on a distant ridge, like they usually are.
We scoped the thing for some minutes and everyone was very happy, then as I looked again it took off and turned into a Papuan Mountain Pigeon that had been sitting with two sticks right behind it, exactly like distant Black Sicklebill tail feathers………
Oooer, credibility nose dive and some of the folks were not smiling at losing a megatick. Happily however Orni was looking out for me because not 2 minutes later I scanned a ridge behind us and found a real Black Sicklebill!
Phil Gregory
Thanks Phil for your contribution to this series of articles.
To read more in this series click here.
Question for readers:
When did you experience an embarrassing birding moment? Perhaps it was a mistaken identification. Perhaps you didn’t look carefully enough and were later proved wrong. Maybe the bird itself fooled you in some way.
I invite readers to submit their birding bloopers in the comments section below. If it’s good enough I might just feature it in a post of its own, with a link back to your blog (if you have one).