Trevor's Birding

A slight distraction: Fork Tailed Swifts

No Comments »21st November, 2006; Category: Bird Behaviour, General

I have been slightly distracted today. A series of thunderstorms and a cooler weather front have been moving through South Australia this morning. Yesterday we had a foul day; 40 degree heat with wild wind blowing dust from the dry north. Today is slightly better with cooler air forecast for later in the day.

The distraction comes from the possibility of seeing swifts. I have only ever seen swifts on a handful of occasions and only once here at home in Murray Bridge. The reason for my excitement is that there have been numerous reports of Fork Tailed Swifts over various suburbs of Adelaide, 80km to the west. The storm front is moving in our direction.

Swifts are often associated with and follow storm movements. There is usually greater insect activity at these times and that attracts the swifts. The first time I saw a group of Fork Tailed Swifts they were swooping low and fast over a pasture in the south east of South Australia. I was amazed at both their size (wingspan about 40cm) and their speed. They are indeed, swift.

The good news – the cooler air has arrived.

The bad news – no swift sightings yet.

Even worse news – only a few drops of rain.

The drought continues.

Bird Word: Collar

No Comments »21st November, 2006; Category: Bird Word, General, Glossary

Collar: a contrasting coloured band of feathers on the neck of a bird.

The collar, neck and nape of a bird can refer to basically the same part of the bird’s body, just below the crown or top of the head and just above the back. Some species of birds have a distinctive band or collar of contrasting coloured feathers in this area, and this helps with identification.

Some birds even have a reference to this collar in their name and this helps to categorise the bird in the observer’s mind. Some examples are:

Collared Sparrowhawk
Collared Kingfisher
Red-Collared Lorikeet (a subspecies of the Rainbow Lorikeet)
Red-Necked Avocet
White-Naped Honeyeater

For more in this series of articles check out the Glossary of Bird Words here.

Collared Sparrowhawk

Speeding Bronzewing Pigeon

2 Comments »20th November, 2006; Category: Bird Behaviour, Pigeons and Doves

Common Bronzewing Pigeon

Most people who take an interest in birds know that the fastest bird is the Peregrine Falcon. In a stoop (dive) it can reach speeds of over 200kph and perhaps as fast as 300kph. Most other birds are quite pedestrian by comparison.

Common Bronzewing Pigeons and their cousins the Brush Bronzewings have always amazed me with their speed as they dart through the mallee scrub near here in Murray Bridge. I did not realise just how fast they are able to fly until recently.

We were returning from a visit to Lowan Conservation Park about 40 minutes drive northeast of home. The roadside vegetation is mainly mallee trees, typical of many roads in this area. Our approach disturbed a Common Bronzewing from the side of the road. It proceeded to fly at speed about twenty metres in front of the car. I was driving at about 90kph and was only steadily gaining on this speeding bird. It gradually veered off the road a little but still kept flying along parallel to the road. On catching it I slowed down and kept pace with it at about 85kph until it decided to veer off for a rest. In all, it must have covered at least 500 metres at this speed.

Brush Bronzewing Pigeon

Great Birding Moments # 21 Splendid Wren

3 Comments »19th November, 2006; Category: Bush birds, Great Birding Moments, Honeyeaters, Wrens

Lowan Conservation Park

A few days ago we went to visit Lowan Conservation Park, a relatively small patch of mallee scrub about 40 minutes drive north east of our home in Murray Bridge. This park can be very rewarding to the birder – or it can be extremely frustrating. It usually depends on what trees and bushes are in flower.

We arrived mid afternoon in bright sunshine with a gentle south westerly keeping conditions pleasant. We drove slowly through to a nice spot in about the middle of the park for an afternoon cuppa. As we stopped there were about 150 Dusky Woodswallows overhead, their lovely calls filling the sky. Within minutes they had moved on. (For a photo of a Dusky Woodswallow taken elsewhere click here and scroll down the page.)

All else was fairly quiet. A few Weebills called nearby and a Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater called a distance away. I could also hear a Magpie calling and a Grey Shrike-thrush called somewhere in the scrub nearby. During the twenty minutes break for our cuppa we didn’t see a bird. I had been hopeful of seeing a Chestnut Quail-thrush because we parked a few metres from where I had seen two of them on a previous visit. No luck there.

We drove very slowly back towards the entrance gate but stopped a short distance from it so Corinne could take a photo of some plants. To see the photos click here and here and here.

While she was taking the photos I wandered off into the scrub for about thirty metres. A sudden flash of colour in the low bushes nearby attracted my attention. For about ten seconds I had a great view of a male Splendid Fairy-wren in full breeding plumage. This has to be one of Australia’s most beautiful birds. I’ve only managed to see one on a few occasions. This area is one fairly reliable spot to observe this species.

The excitement of this sighting was shattered a little when I realised that my camera was in the car! By the time I’d collected the camera it had flown elsewhere and it wasn’t calling, so I couldn’t track it down. I tried to attract it by making kissing sounds (this usually works with wrens) but to no avail. So I haven’t a photo to show off. Instead you will have to be content with someone else’s photos here.

UPDATE: on my recent holiday in New South Wales I managed to get some reasonable photos of this beautiful species. Check out “A Splendid Result”

This post was updated on July 6th 2015.

Why do baby birds disappear?

16 Comments »18th November, 2006; Category: Baby birds, Bird Behaviour, Cuckoos, Frequently Asked Questions, Garden birds

One of my regular readers recently asked the question: “Why do baby birds disappear?” We had been corresponding during the recent height of the Australian breeding season. Spring here is coming to a close, but many birds are still actively making nests, sitting on eggs or feeding young in the nest or just out of the nest. This reader observed that many baby birds go missing. What happens to them, she asked.

Here is my reply:

It is very distressing for bird lovers to see the little birds disappear or be killed in some way so soon after hatching or leaving the nest. If we knew the figures, I think we would be horrified by the enormous attrition rate in our fauna, not just birds.

Some possibilities include the following:

1. Removal from the nest by cuckoos. We have several species of cuckoos in Australia. The female lays one egg in a host nest. This could be a thornbill, honeyeater or a range of other species. The host bird hatches the eggs and the baby cuckoo hatches first and it removes all other eggs in the nest in the first hour or so after hatching. It then gets ALL the food from the host parents. Harsh yes – but this is normal, natural cuckoo behaviour.
2. Predation of eggs or chicks: this could be from ravens, crows, currawongs, butcherbirds, hawks and even magpies. Cats, foxes, snakes and lizards, especially goannas, will also raid nests.
3. Predation out of the nest: Once fledged and out of the nest the young birds run the gauntlet of so many hazards including all in number 2 above. Add to those hazards the problem of being hit by speeding cars, wild storms, flying into glass panes (very common), captured by well meaning people and not cared for properly, heavy rain, cold nights and so on.

It is a wonder that any survive at all, especially in urban areas. This is in part compensated for by the following strategies:
(a) Laying 3-5 eggs for each clutch as this increases the success rate
(b) cleverly camouflaging the nest – with all my experience I am still fooled by their cryptic nest sites.
(c) breeding two or three times in one season.

It would certainly help if all cat owners were responsible and made a run for their animals. This would eliminate some deaths in our fauna, but a far greater problem is the feral cats. There is no control of these and all are very big, strong and cunning. I think compulsory desexing of cats is the way to go, but it would only be a start. Catching all the feral cats is probably not feasible. Making sure no more are added to their ranks will be a good start though.

Related articles:

Common Blackbirds – the article that started it all. The many comments are very interesting reading.

Do Blackbirds Swoop? How to deal with aggressive bird behaviour – another article I wrote about Blackbirds. This one also created a great deal of interest with many interesting comments.

Magpies behaving badly – Australian Magpies have a bad reputation during breeding season.

A bit on the nose – an amusing incident involving a cyclist, a swooping Red Wattlebird and a nose.

Anyone for a swim? Forget it baby Blackbird. Now this is something different.