Author Archives: Ian

Ian’s Bird Of The Week – White-bellied Cuckooshrike

by

1

White-bellied Cuckooshrike (Coracina papuensis robusta) by Ian

White-bellied Cuckooshrike (Coracina papuensis robusta) by Ian

Ian’s Bird Of The Week – White-bellied Cuckooshrike ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter – 3/27/11

Not only colourful birds are beautiful. Take, for example, the monochrome Cuckooshrikes, such as the White-bellied. ‘Dapper’ comes to mind, though my dictionary defines it as meaning ‘up-to-date in dress and manners, and there is something timeless about the beauty of birds. I find the soft greys of Cuckooshrikes quite lovely and the contrasting white and black touches make them completely ready for the most formal occasion.

White-bellied Cuckooshrike (Coracina papuensis robusta) by Ian

White-bellied Cuckooshrike (Coracina papuensis robusta) by Ian

The best known Cuckooshrike in Australia is the very widespread Black-faced, but in North Queensland the smaller White-bellied is usually much commoner, though the migrant Black-faced can be numerous in the (winter) dry season. The first photo shows an adult of the eastern Australian race robusta perched in a red-flowering Poinsiana near my house. The second photo is of a juvenile bird, also in my garden, with the characteristic faintly barred breast and dark smudge behind the eye.

White-bellied Cuckooshrike (Coracina papuensis hypoleuca) by Ian

White-bellied Cuckooshrike (Coracina papuensis hypoleuca) by Ian

The third photo shows the paler, white-breasted, northern race hypoleuca, found in the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia. It merely looks like it’s got a broken wing: it’s actually in the middle of the wing shuffle performed both by this species and the Black-faced after landing and, apparently, during display. The shuffle is done very deliberately and the birds look as if they are having trouble folding their wings comfortably. The Black-faced is sometimes called the ‘Shufflewing’, arguably a much better name than ‘cuckooshrike’ as they are not related to either cuckoos or shrikes and shrikes are meaninglessly unknown in Australia, except as rare vagrants.

White-bellied Cuckooshrike (Coracina papuensis robusta) by Ian

White-bellied Cuckooshrike (Coracina papuensis robusta)dark morph by Ian

Interestingly, the White-bellied seems to have some black-faced genes lurking in its genome, as there is an uncommon dark morph of the race robusta, fourth photo, which could easily be confused with the larger Black-faced Cuckooshrike, though the dark morph of the White-bellied has black scallops between the breast and the belly. The species are distinguishable by call. Both are quite vocal, with the Black-faced having a musical ‘chereer’ while the White-bellied is a peevish ‘kissik’: if it sounds as if it’s complaining, it’s a White-bellied.

Links:
White-bellied Cuckooshrike
Black-faced Cuckooshrike
True Shrikes

Best wishes,
Ian

—
Ian Montgomery, Birdway Pty Ltd,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Phone: 0411 602 737 +61-411 602 737
Preferred Email: ian@birdway.com.au
Website: http://birdway.com.au

Lee’s Addition:

Thanks, Ian, for introducing us to another interesting bird. The Cuckoo is a Bird of the Bible, but I am not sure if the Cuckooshrike comes under that “kind” or not. The KJV spells it, “cuckow” and the MKJV “cuckoo.”

and the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckoo, and the hawk after its kind, (Deuteronomy 14:15 MKJV)

The Cuckooshrikes are in the Campephagidae – Cuckooshrikes Family of the Passeriformes Order, whereas the Cuckoo is in the Cuculidae – Cuckoos Family of the Cuculiformes Order. So, I suspect that since they are two different Orders that they are totally different “kinds.”

Cuckoo is used with several other bird families:

Cuckoo-Hawks – Accipitridae Family
Cuckoo-Doves – Columbidae Family
Cuckoo Roller – Leptosomidae Family
Cuckoo Weaver – Viduidae Family

And some of you only thought the Cuckoo lived in a clock!

*

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Weebill

by

0

Weebill (Smicrornis brevirostris) by Ian Montgomery

Weebill (Smicrornis brevirostris) by Ian Montgomery

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Weebill ~ by Ian Montgomery

I’ve recently been reformatting the photo galleries of the Thornbills and Allies (Acanthizidae) on the website. This is a family of small, mostly insectivorous birds and here, with a length of 8-9cm/3.2-3.5in, is the diminutive Weebill. It is widespread in drier woodlands, including Mallee, across mainland Australia, but absent from Tasmania and is not found in wetter forests. It has a characteristic stubby horn-coloured bill, pale eyebrow and pale iris, as in the first photo, which distinguishes it from the rather similar Yellow Thornbill. This photo, taken in Victoria, shows the browner nominate race found Victoria, New South Wales, southern Queensland and eastern South Australia.

Weebill (Smicrornis brevirostris) by Ian Montgomery

Weebill (Smicrornis brevirostris) by Ian Montgomery

The northern race (flavescens), second photo, taken on Southern Cape York Peninsula, ranges across the most of the rest of northern and central Australia is much yellower in colour and slightly smaller, making it the smallest bird in Australia. They are often to be found in very harsh, dry habitats and I am frequently impressed that such small birds are so tough and such great survivors.

Weebill (Smicrornis brevirostris) by Ian Montgomery

Weebill (Smicrornis brevirostris) by Ian Montgomery

The third photo, taken in Northwestern Queensland, is also of this race but is, I think, an immature bird, less brightly coloured and a greyish rather than white iris. In southwestern Western Australia, the northern race grades into another race (occidentalis) with a greyish face with a rufous tinge, but I haven’t photographed it.

Weebills are lively, vocal little birds with a remarkably strong voice so you often hear them before you spot them busily feeding in the foliage of trees. The call is rendered something like ‘wee-willey-weet weet’ but I was told to remember ‘I’m a little Weebill’ and that works for me.
Links:
Best wishes
Ian
P. S. There was an error in last week’s Yellow-spotted Honeyeater. I said that the Yellow-spotted and the Graceful where North Queensland endemics when I should have said that in Australia, they occur only in North Queensland. They also occur in New Guinea. 

—
Ian Montgomery, Birdway Pty Ltd,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Phone: 0411 602 737 +61-411 602 737
Preferred Email: ian@birdway.com.au
Website: http://birdway.com.au

Lee’s Addition:
What a cute little bird. After you check out Ian’s links to the Acanthizidae he has photographed, see the Acanthizidae Family of the Passeriformes Order in our Birds of the World section.

And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. (Genesis 1:30 ESV)

*

Ian’s Bird Of The Week – Yellow-spotted Honeyeater

by

0

Yellow-spotted Honeyeater (Meliphaga notata) by Ian

Yellow-spotted Honeyeater (Meliphaga notata) by Ian

Ian’s Bird Of The Week – Yellow-spotted Honeyeater ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter – 03-13-11

I’ve been working on the Honeyeater galleries on the website recently and a Yellow-spotted Honeyeater showed up outside my house a few days ago, pushing this species into the foreground when I was contemplating the choice of this week’s bird. Bluewater is at the southern end of its range, so it turns up only occasionally and this one is presumably a cyclone Yasi refugee.

It’s very similar to the Graceful Honeyeater, which has an almost identical range from just north of Bluewater (Rollingstone) to Cape York, so they are both North Queensland endemics and, in turn, similar to Lewin’s Honeyeater, which occurs right along the east coast of Australia as far south as Melbourne. Both the Yellow-spotted and the Graceful are common in forest habitats in North Queensland and I had trouble separating them when I first moved up here until I learnt their calls – the easiest way to distinguish them – so a comparison of the three species might be of interest and I’ve selected photos taken under similar condition using flash in poor light, typical of forests.

Lewin's Honeyeater (Meliphaga lewinii) by Ian

Lewin's Honeyeater (Meliphaga lewinii) by Ian

The Yellow-spotted – first photo – is intermediate in size (17-19cm/6.7-7.5in) between the larger Lewin’s – second photo – (19-22cm/7.5-8.7) and the smaller Graceful – third photo – (14-17cm/5.5-6.7in), so perhaps the key is to separate it from the other two species. Lewin’s has a dark-grey face (in front of the ear-patch), a large half-moon-shaped ear patch and a heavier bill. Both have longish pale-yellow, almost whitish, gapes. The typical call of the Lewin’s is the familiar loud and regular ‘machine-gun’ rattle of the forest of eastern Australia; that of the Yellow-spotted is clearly related but different: slower and descending. Both also have harsh chattering calls, differing in tone and intensity in a similar way to the machine-gun calls – that of the Lewin’s is louder and harsher in a bigger-bird sort of way.

Both the Yellow-spotted and the Graceful have greenish faces and smallish ear-patches which look similar to me (though some field guides make distinctions such as ’rounded triangle, yellow’ versus ’rounded, cream’: huh?). The gapes, however, are quite different, that of the Yellow-spotted being long and pale like that Lewin’s while that of the Graceful is shorter and very yellow (chrome). The Graceful has a longer bill with a decurved lower edge (that of both Lewin’s and Yellow-spotted is almost straight), though I’ve found that a tricky field mark unless you get a good, exactly lateral view. Happily, the call of the Graceful is very different, a sharp ‘tuck’ or ‘pik’ repeated at intervals and very distinctive.

Graceful Honeyeater (Meliphaga gracilis) by Ian

Graceful Honeyeater (Meliphaga gracilis) by Ian

All three species are quite vocal and in the forest you normally hear them before you see them, so I find it best to use the visual field marks to confirm an auditory identification, particularly if you find the Graceful and the Yellow-spotted together, which happens sometimes. In the north, the Lewin’s is more of a highland species, though it does move down in winter, and it’s unusual to find it in the company of the other two.

We made a recent trip to Paluma to inspect the cyclone damage. The local birds, particularly the fruit-eaters seemed very hungry and responded well to feeding so I’ve added photos of these species:
Victoria’s Riflebird
Satin Bowerbird
Spotted Catbird
White-cheeked Honeyeater
Macleay’s Honeyeater

At home the good news is that my lone cyclone-surviving male Blue-winged Kookaburra seems to have attracted a mate, and there were plenty of Dollarbirds around yesterday.

Best wishes,
Ian
—
Ian Montgomery, Birdway Pty Ltd,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Phone: +61-7 4751 3115
Preferred Email: ian@birdway.com.au
Website: http://birdway.com.au

Lee’s Addition:
The Honeyeaters are part of the 183 species, 44 genera, in the Meliphagidae Family. This family is in the Passeriformes Order.

Eating too much honey can make you sick. (Proverbs 25:16 CEV)

To see more of Ian’s Bird of the Week articles – CLICK HERE

*

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Superb Fruit-Dove

by

0

Superb Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus superbus) by Ian

Superb Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus superbus) by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Superb Fruit-Dove  ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter ~ 02-20-11

One of the tragedies of severe tropical cyclones is the damage to vegetation, particularly fruiting trees, and the resulting avian refugees, many battered and exhausted, fleeing far and wide in search of food. Since cyclone Yasi, many Superb and Wompoo Fruit-Doves and some Brown Cuckoo-doves have been moving through areas such as Bluewater and Townsville. This happened after cyclone Larry in 2006 when many of these refugees stayed around for months, but they are even more numerous this time round.

Superb Fruit-Doves are among the most spectacularly beautiful of rainforest birds in eastern Australia, but despite their bright colours are usually heard rather than seen. Their distinctive, repeated ‘whoop, whoop’ calls – with a rising inflection delivered at a regular rhythm and easily distinguished from the similar but accelerating ‘whp-whoo’ of the related and equally gorgeous Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove – are a very characteristic sound of northeastern rainforests. Hearing is no guarantee of seeing, however, and these shy birds usually remain invisible in the thick foliage of rainforest trees. So, it is strange to see these wonderful little doves (length of both species to 24cm/9.5in) sitting in full-view on trees in open tropical savanna left leafless by the cyclone, too tired to fly away when approached.

Superb Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus superbus) by Ian

Superb Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus superbus) by Ian

The first photo shows a male, the second the less-spectacular but still beautiful female photographed from the verandah of my house a week to ten days after the cyclone when this species was most numerous around here. The females have an indigo skull cap that, being on the back of the head, is often not visible but you can see it clearly in the bird in the third photo, taken in a battered but still fruiting tree at Dungeness where we lunched last Thursday, in a normally but no longer shady park near Lucinda on the coast east of Ingham, after doing the monthly wader survey. That area took quite a battering and the sand spit along which we used to walk to do the survey has largely been flattened and the sand dumped in the mud flat to its west.

The range of the Superb Fruit-Dove in Australia is the east coast from the tip of Cape York to south of Sydney. Its main breeding range is in tropical Queensland north of Prosperine on the Whitsunday Coast and it is relatively rare in New South Wales. It also occurs in New Guinea and eastern Indonesia and many Australian birds migrate to New Guinea in winter. Fruit-eating doves normally range widely in search of food, given the seasonal nature of its availability, so it is to be hoped that this ability serves them well in times such as this.

Links:
Superb Fruit-Dove
Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove
Wompoo Fruit-Dove
Brown Cuckoo-Dove

Superb Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus superbus) by Ian

Superb Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus superbus) by Ian

I’ve resumed work on the website still using the borrowed mobile modem and have at last finished updating all the next/previous family pointers of the Australian bird family thumbnail pages. This means that you can now view the website in a global context or an Australian one, depending on your focus. The global context – and the New World and Old World subsets – follows the taxonomic organization and sequence of Birdlife International both between and within families while the Australian one follows the organization and sequence of Christidis and Boles, 2008, the generally accepted authorities in Australia.

There are quite a few differences in the recognized families, the sequence of families and the order within families between the 2 schema, so I suggest that you stick to one or the other (at any one time) to avoid confusion. The Australian context is distinguished by green backgrounds for both arrows (to Australian thumbnails and to previous and next families) and for the pages of family thumbnails. I’ve documented differences in family structure on the family pages; have a look at this for a simple example: http://www.birdway.com.au/cacatuinae/index_aus.htm and this for a particularly divergent example: http://www.birdway.com.au/sylviidae/index_aus.htm .

Best wishes,

Ian

Ian Montgomery, Birdway Pty Ltd,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Phone: +61-7 4751 3115
Preferred Email: ian@birdway.com.au
Website: http://birdway.com.au

Lee’s Addition:

The Fruit-doves is one of the Birds of the Bible. Doves are mentioned over 40 times in Scripture. See also – Birds of the Bible – Doves and Pigeons

And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest. (Psalms 55:6 KJV)

Superb Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus superbus) by xeno-canto-David Farrow

Rose-crowned Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus regina) by xeno-canto – Vicki Powys

Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold. (Psalms 68:13 KJV)

This beautiful Superb Fruit-Dove or Fruit Dove, depending on whose list used, is in the Columbidae Family of the Columbiformes Order. There are 321 members of the family including the Doves, Fruit Doves, Collared Doves, Cuckoo-Doves, Wood Doves, Bronsewings, Ground and Quail Doves, Bleeding Hearts, plus all the different kinds of Pigeons.

*

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Olive-backed/Yellow-bellied Sunbird

by

4

 

Olive-backed Sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis) by Ian

 

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Olive-backed/Yellow-bellied Sunbird ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newletter: 02-17-11

Well, my apologies for a very belated bird of the week. Life in and around Townsville has largely returned to normal post-Yasi, except for for my broadband connection so I’ve borrowed a mobile modem from my neighbour.

Olive-backed Sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis) by Ian

Olive-backed Sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis) by Ian

This week’s choice is the award for small bird cyclone survivor, jointly shared by around here by Red-backed Fairywren, Dusky Honeyeater and Olive-backed or Yellow-bellied Sunbird. The fairywren has been bird of the week before (July 2005), so I was going to choose the Dusky Honeyeater until I discovered that I have no record of the Sunbird being bird of the week before. That’s a potentially serious omission, so please forgive me if I’m mistaken: just nod sagely and put it down to old age and post-cyclone shock.

I suppose one shouldn’t be surprised at the Sunbird surviving cyclones as its range in Australia is restricted almost entirely to coastal tropical Queensland, extending just south of the Tropic of Capricorn to around Bundaberg. It also occurs in Torres Strait, New Guinea and southeast Asia but is regarded here as an iconic species and is immensely popular being very common around gardens, tame and often building its elegant hanging nest on verandahs. They feed mainly on the nectar of blossoms but will also take spiders.

The first two photos show the blue-chested male and yellow-breasted female respectively on Calliandra (Powder Puff) and were taken at the house that I rented when I first moved to Townsville. The third photo shows one of the local males perched in a Poinsiana tree near my current house.

Olive-backed Sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis) by Ian

Olive-backed Sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis) by Ian

This species is the only Sunbird found in Australia but it belongs to a large family with more than 100 species of Sunbird in Asia and Africa and leading a lifestyle similar to that of the exclusively American and unrelated Hummingbirds. The Sunbirds are closely related to the Flowerpeckers – which include the Mistletoebird – and there is disagreement as to whether they constitute one or two families.

Other cyclone related news is that the Peaceful Dove that I rescued had an injured rather than broken wing, has recovered well in the company of the budgies next door and is ready to be returned to the wild. Food is now the main issue for survivors and many of you have naturally expressed concern for the Southern Cassowaries, just recovering from cyclone Larry. You can find out what the Queensland Government is doing . Sue and Phil Gregory tell me that the Cassowaries at Cassowary House in Kuranda near Cairns have survived well, so keep that in mind if you are visiting North Queensland and want somewhere lovely to stay: http://www.cassowary-house.com.au/ .

Like cyclone Larry, Bluewater has been visited by some unusual avian visitors post-Yasi. I’ll say more about them in the next email and some photos of a special one for bird of the week #400 which will go out shortly as a catch-up.

Best wishes and thank you again for your kindness and support.
Ian
—
Ian Montgomery, Birdway Pty Ltd,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Phone: +61-7 4751 3115
Preferred Email: ian@birdway.com.au
Website: http://birdway.com.au

Lee’s Addition:

What a neat looking bird and your photography skills show through as usual, Ian. Not sure about the readers, but I enjoy seeing each of your Bird of the Week offerings.

The Sunbirds reside in the Nectariniidae Family of the Passeriformes Order. There are 136 of these beautiful Sunbirds which also include Double-collared Sunbirds and Spiderhunters.

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, (Revelation 19:17 NKJV)

“The sunbirds and spiderhunters are a family, Nectariniidae, of very small passerine birds. The family is distributed throughout Africa, southern Asia and just reaches northern Australia. Most sunbirds feed largely on nectar, although they will also take insects, especially when feeding young. Fruit is also part of the diet of some species. Their flight is fast and direct on their short wings.

The sunbirds have counterparts in two very distantly related groups: the hummingbirds of the Americas and the honeyeaters of Australia. The resemblances are due to the similar nectar-feeding lifestyle. Some sunbird species can take nectar by hovering like a hummingbird, but usually perch to feed.

The family ranges in size from the 5-gram Black-bellied Sunbird to the Spectacled Spiderhunter, at about 45 grams. Like the hummingbirds, sunbirds are strongly sexually dimorphic, with the males usually brilliantly plumaged in metallic colours. In addition to this the tails of many species are longer in the males, and overall the males are larger. Sunbirds have long thin down-curved bills and brush-tipped tubular tongues, both adaptations to their nectar feeding. The spiderhunters, of the genus Arachnothera, are distinct in appearance from the other members of the family. They are typically larger than the other sunbirds, with drab brown plumage that is the same for both sexes and long down-curved beaks.

Species of sunbirds that live in high altitudes will enter torpor while roosting at night, lowering their body temperature and entering a state of low activity and responsiveness.” (Wikipedia)

For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly. (Psalms 84:11 NKJV)

*

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Black-breasted Buttonquail

by

0

Black-breasted Buttonquail (Turnix melanogaster) by Ian

Black-breasted Buttonquail (Turnix melanogaster) by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Black-breasted Buttonquail ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter – 01/30/11

I returned home from Armidale NSW by road bringing back a friend’s car that had been left at the Gold Coast south of Brisbane because of the flooding. I took the opportunity to make a detour to Inskip Point – near Rainbow Beach and Fraser Island – a known haunt of the rare Black-breasted Buttonquail, see the female in first photo.

I found a pair relatively easily, though not before a few false alarms in the shape of some very young Australian Scrub-turkeys, as in the second photo, so young in fact that they were as small as the Buttonquails.
Australian Brushturkey (Alectura lathami) by Ian

Australian Brushturkey (Alectura lathami) by Ian

Buttonquails leave characteristic circular bare patches in leaf litter called ‘platelets’ and I had stopped to examine some of these when a female Black-breasted Buttonquail ambled across the path and walked right past me. At one stage she walked towards me and I don’t think she noticed my presence. Buttonquails, like certain other eclectic groups of birds including Phalaropes and Cassowaries, have reversed sex roles with the more colourful females courting the males and the males incubating and looking after the young, so I was pleased to see the female who has a black head and black breast with moon-shaped white spots on the sides, as in the third photo.
Black-breasted Buttonquail (Turnix melanogaster) by Ian

Black-breasted Buttonquail (Turnix melanogaster) by Ian

Buttonquails are not closely related to the true quails and are placed in their own family, the Turnicidae. The most obvious structural difference is the lack of a hind toe in Buttonquails, as you can see if you look carefully in the fourth photo and they are sometimes called ‘Hemipodes’, meaning half-foots. They feed on seed and invertebrates and the Black-breasted is particularly dependent on leaf litter and eats mainly invertebrates. They make the platelets by spinning around on one foot using the other to clear away the leaves; often they then reverse direction standing on the other foot so the size of the platelet matches the size of the bird. The Black-breasted is large by Buttonquail standards with the larger females being about 19cm/7.5in in length and the males 16.5cm/6.5in. I saw her drabber partner later but he didn’t want his photo taken.
Black-breasted Buttonquail (Turnix melanogaster) by Ian

Black-breasted Buttonquail (Turnix melanogaster) by Ian

There are about 16 species in total and are found in Africa, southern Spain, southern and southeastern Asia and Australia. Seven of these occur in Australia. The range of the Black-breasted is limited to coastal southeastern Queensland and northeastern NSW from Fraser Island to just north of Lismore. Its preferred habitat is open woodland and its population has suffered from habitat clearing and it is now classed as vulnerable.

I’ve put the Southern Boobooks, photographed in Armidale, on the website:
Southern Boobook
Links:
Best wishes,

Ian
—
Ian Montgomery, Birdway Pty Ltd,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Phone: +61-7 4751 3115
Preferred Email: ian@birdway.com.au
Website: http://birdway.com.au

Lee’s Additions:

As Ian said, the Buttonquails are in the Turnicidae – Buttonquail Family of the Charadriiformes Order. There are 17 members of this family. The Charadriiformes Order does not even include the New World Quail Family. Those quails are found in the Galliformes Order which also included the Brushturkeys.  The Brushturkeys are part of the Magapode – Medapodiidae Family in the Galliformes Order. It has 22 members in its family.

Quails are mentioned in the Bible in four verses; Exodus 16:13, Numbers 11:31-32 and Psalm 105:40. Which kind of quail, it is not clear, but they were complaining about not having enough to eat and the LORD sent them Quail.

The people asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven. (Psalms 105:40 KJV)

To see more:

Ian’s Birds of the Week

Birds of the Bible – Quail

*

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Laughing Kookaburra

by

0

Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) by Ian

Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Laughing Kookaburra ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter  – 01/23/11

The Blue-winged Kookaburra has featured as bird of the week (twice) but, as far as I can detect, the iconic Laughing Kookaburra hasn’t, so let’s correct that using library photos. Bird photo opportunities were time-constrained during the wonderful recorder course in Armidale, NSW, though a family of roosting Southern Boobooks (which featured as bird of the week last year) gave the participants much pleasure and I’ll let you know when I’ve put the photos on the website.

Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) by Ian

Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) by Ian

Its loud cackling call is a characteristic sound of the Australian landscape (and of the sound tracks of B-grade jungle movies not set in Australia) and it’s a familiar bird in southern and eastern Australia, first photo.

Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) by Ian

Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) by Ian

Up to 47cm/18.5in in length, it’s larger than its blue-winged cousin (length to 40cm) and by far the largest Australian Kingfisher. Unlike male blue-winged, birds of both sexes have brown tails and are not easily told apart. The third photo shows a breeding pair of Laughing Kookaburras, photographed near their nest site in a tree hollow in the botanic gardens (the Palmetum) in Townsville.

Older males can, however, be distinguished by having bluish rumps,  like one making his presence very audible in the third photo. Kookaburras are very territorial and defend their territories by having calling matches and by performing circular display flights as far as the boundary of the territory. A territorial group consists of either just a breeding pair or a dominant breeding pair and several ‘helper’ birds so the calling matches can be very noisy indeed when everyone takes part.
Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) by Ian

Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) by Ian

Juvenile birds are recognisable by the pale brownish scalloped edges to the plumage, most noticeable on the back like the right hand bird in the fourth photo. This bird is barely fledged and has a very short tail.

Kookaburras are carnivorous and they hunt from perches, doing long glides down to catch terrestrial prey, typically large insects and small mammals and reptiles. The bird in the fifth photo has just caught a mouse. They will immobilise their prey by beating it on the perch, and will automatically do this even when fed dead food such as strips of meat.
Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) by Ian

Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) by Ian

The original range of the Laughing Kookaburra comprised only mainland eastern Australia from the tip of Cape York in the north south to Victoria and as far west as eastern South Australia. Since european settlement it has been successfully introduced to southwestern Western Australia, Tasmania, the islands in Bass Strait and Kangaroo Island in South Australia. Unfortunately, in these areas it competes with the native wildlife for food and with species that nest in tree hollows such as Southern Boobooks.

Best wishes,

Ian

—
Ian Montgomery, Birdway Pty Ltd,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Phone: +61-7 4751 3115
Preferred Email: ian@birdway.com.au
Website: http://birdway.com.au

Lee’s Addition:

While we were at the National Aviary last summer, we had the privilege of seeing and hearing the Kookaburra in action. Below is the video I took up there. The Kookaburras are in the Alcedinidae – Kingfisher Family of the Coraciiformes Order.

The 5 Kookaburras are the Shovel-billed, Laughing, Blue-winged, Spangled and Rufous-bellied Kookaburra.

Blessed are you who hunger now, For you shall be filled.  Blessed are you who weep now, For you shall laugh. (Luke 6:21 NKJV)

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Red-necked Phalarope

by

0

Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) by Ian

Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Red-necked Phalarope ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter – 01-13-11

I had an inquiry from my sister, Colette, in Ireland recently about Red-necked Phalarope (some appeared in breeding plumage at a potential breeding site there last northern summer), so it was floating around in my mind yesterday when I considered what to share with you this week. It’s a dainty and interesting wader, like its cousin the Red/Grey Phalarope which featured as bird of the week after my trip to Alaska in 2008.

Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) by Ian

Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) by Ian

The three species of Phalarope (Wilson’s is the third) breed in high latitudes in the northern hemisphere so Ireland is at the southern edge of its potential range (there was a colony of up to 50 pairs there in the early part of the 20th century). Despite their delicate appearance and toy-like behaviour when bobbing around picking up plankton from the surface of water, these are tough little birds and the Red-necked, 19cm/7.75in in length with a wing-span of 38cm/15in is the smallest of the three. Their favourite nesting sites are on small ponds in the northern tundra and outside the breeding season they are normally pelagic wandering far and wide over the oceans of the world in search of food.

Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) by Ian

Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) by Ian

Like the Red/Grey (summer/winter) Phalarope, the Red-necked shows a reversal in sex roles, with the brighter females courting the males, having multiple partners and leaving the males to incubate the eggs and look after the young. There is though to be a selective advantage in the females being able to lay as many eggs as possible in the brief breeding season of high latitudes. The first photo shows the brighter female, the second the smaller and more subdued – in more ways than one – male.

Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) by Ian

Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) by Ian

In non-breeding plumage all three species have mainly grey and white plumage. The Red-necked has a black, downturned eye-patch – see the third photos – and, visible in flight, wing bars (lacking in Wilson’s) and dark underwing marking. All three species turn up rarely in Australia in the non-breeding season, particular following storms when drive them into bays for shelter or inland. The Red-necked is the least rare of the three and the fourth photo shows one that turned up on the Bellarine Peninsula south-west of Geelong, Victoria in 2002.

On the website, I’ve started altering the sequence of the next and previous family pointers of the Australian family thumbnail pages so that they follow the sequence of Christidis and Boles (2008) – rather than that of Birdlife International – and only include families that occur in Australia. The intention is to create a ‘green’ Australian zone for visitors who are interested only in Australia birds. A green background already distinguishes the Australian thumbnails and I’m adding background colours to pointer arrows and alphbetical index pages to highlight the distinction. You might like to visit the news section of the home page http://www.birdway.com.au/#news and the Australian index http://www.birdway.com.au/australianbirds.htm to see the difference and to find links to examples.
So far I’ve changed the families from Cassowaries http://www.birdway.com.au/casuariidae/index_aus.htm (the first) as far as Plovers and Lapwings http://www.birdway.com.au/charadriidae/index_aus.htm and will progressively work through the rest. That will be delayed for a week as I’m now in northern NSW en route to Armidale, flooded roads permitting, for a recorder course. Fortunately, given the floods, I had already shelved plans to drive down and flew to the Gold Coast yesterday.
Other website additions include a few more snakes and a couple of photos of Greater Frigatebirds .
Best wishes,
Ian
—
Ian Montgomery, Birdway Pty Ltd,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Phone: +61-7 4751 3115
Preferred Email: ian@birdway.com.au
Website: http://birdway.com.au

Lee’s Addition:

Ian has introduced another neat bird. As Ian mentioned, there are three Phalaropes and all of them are here in the United States, though I have not had the privilege of seeing them.

“A phalarope is any of three living species of slender-necked shorebirds in the genus Phalaropus of the bird family Scolopacidae. They are close relatives of the shanks and tattlers, the Actitis and Terek Sandpipers, and also of the turnstones and calidrids. They are especially notable for two things: their unusual nesting behavior, and their unique feeding technique.” (These are in the Charadriiformes Order)

Two species, the Red Phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius, called Grey Phalarope in Europe) and Red-necked Phalarope (P. lobatus) breed around the Arctic Circle and winter on tropical oceans. Wilson’s Phalarope (P. tricolor) breeds in western North America and migrates to South America. All are 6–10 in (15–25 cm) in length, with lobed toes and a straight, slender bill. Predominantly grey and white in winter, their plumage develops reddish markings in summer.”

“Red and Red-necked Phalaropes are unusual amongst shorebirds in that they are considered pelagic, that is, they spend a great deal of their lives outside the breeding season well out to sea. Phalaropes are unusually halophilic (salt-loving) and feed in great numbers in saline lakes such as Mono Lake in California and the Great Salt Lake of Utah. (from Wikipedia)

You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. (Matthew 5:13 NKJV)
Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another. (Mark 9:50 NKJV)

*

Ian’s Bird of the Week – White-tailed Kite

by

0

White-tailed Kite (Elanus leucurus) by Ian

White-tailed Kite (Elanus leucurus) by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – White-tailed Kite ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter ~ 1-06-11

It was only when I was recently preparing this photo for the website, that I noticed that this White-tailed Kite was carrying a small mammal, probably a mouse given the location and the length of the tail, so I thought I would share it with you.

If you are an Australian birder and this bird looked very familiar – ah, a Black-shouldered Kite – you actually be very nearly right. The endemic Australian Black-shouldered (Elanus axillaris), the American White-tailed (E. leucurus) and the Old World Black-winged (E. caeruleus) Kites have been regarded as a single species in the past. Although they are now treated as separate ones, they are referred to collectively as a ‘super-species’, which, if you’re cynical, you might see as a case of taxonomists hedging their bets. The only other member of the genus Elanus worldwide is the Letterwinged Kite (E. scriptus), also an Australian endemic and a rarely seen, largely nocturnal inhabitant of the dry centre.
Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus axillaris) by Ian

Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus axillaris) by Ian

The three species differ slightly in size – the White-tailed at 15in/38cm in length is by a small margin the largest – but mainly in the pattern of the underwing. If you look carefully at this bird you can see a blackish spot on a white background near the wrist joint (the primary underwing coverts). This is longer in the Australian version and missing completely in the otherwise very similar Eurasian one. The Black-winged occurs quite widely through southeastern and southern Asia, central and southern Africa and, in small numbers in Iberia and north Africa. The White-tailed occurs in the southern USA and Central and South America.

These are elegant little kites, hover like kestrels and all feed mainly on small mammals. The Letter-winged is particularly partial to the long-haired rat, despite its scientific name Rattus villosissimus, and its population cycles follow the rat’s with the birds dispersing widely when the rat population crashes. I once saw a pair at dusk in a street in inner Sydney (Surry Hills) and you can’t get much farther from the dry interior than that.
Anyway, I’m getting off the track. Back at the website, I’ve added new photos of Australian, American White and Brown Pelicans and starting adding some snakes to the Other Wildlife section.
Links:
Best wishes,
Ian
—
Ian Montgomery, Birdway Pty Ltd,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Phone: +61-7 4751 3115
Preferred Email: ian@birdway.com.au
Website: http://birdway.com.au

Lee’s Addition:
Another neat bird from Ian. Glad to see him post because I wasn’t sure if he was being affected by the flooding in Australia.

The Kites are in the Accipitridae Family with the Hawks, Kites and Eagles. The Accipitridae are in the Accipitriformes Order which not only includes them but also the New World Vultures, Secretarybird and Ospreys.

But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind, (Deuteronomy 14:12-13 KJV)

*

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Metallic Starling

by

1

Metallic Starling (Aplonis metallica) by Ian

Metallic Starling (Aplonis metallica) by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Metallic Starling ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter: 1-2-2011

Here’s a local bird to welcome in the New Year: the Metallic Starling. The Common Starling has given starlings a bad name by being feral (introduced) in many parts of the world including Australia, South Africa and North America and feral (in behaviour) in its native Europe and Asia. Here’s an exotic tropical one to infuse a bit of balance. With strikingly iridescent green and violet plumage worthy of a bird of a paradise, a piercing red eye to make the devil envious, a long pointed tail and dashing flight, there’s nothing merely feral about this starling: see the first photo.

Metallic Starling (Aplonis metallica) by Ian

Metallic Starling (Aplonis metallica) by Ian

Like the Common Starling, however, they are highly social both in and out of the breeding season. They build large globular nests suspended in dense colonies in large rainforest trees. In Northeastern Australia they often nests in the introduced South American Rain Tree, like this one in Tully, halfway between Cairns and Townsville, where all of these photos except the last were taken (thank you, John Barkla). The second photo shows an adult visiting a nest and the yellow gape of a hungry chick begging for food.

Metallic Starling (Aplonis metallica) by Ian

Metallic Starling (Aplonis metallica) by Ian

Many fledged juveniles are often present in these colonies and these are strikingly different in appearance from the adults with their white underparts with bold streaks, as in the third photo, and could easily be mistaken for a different species.

Metallic Starling (Aplonis metallica) by Ian

Metallic Starling (Aplonis metallica) by Ian

In Australia, the Metallic Starling has a limited range along the north east coast of Queensland from the tip of Cape York to Mackay, but common only north of Ingham, where there is a colony in the middle of the main street. In Australia it is mainly a summer migrant, arriving in August/September and most have left by April, though some overwinter. The fourth photo shows a big flock of Metallic Starlings preparing to roost at sunset at Chilli Beach near Lockhart River on Cape York Peninsula.

If, like me, you are into symbols, I offer you the sunset as a farewell to 2010 and the new-born chick as a token of the New Year: I wish you a happy and healthy one!
Ian

—
Ian Montgomery, Birdway Pty Ltd,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Phone: +61-7 4751 3115
Preferred Email: ian@birdway.com.au
Website: http://birdway.com.au

Lee’s Addition:

Wow! What a gorgeous bird. I venture to say, that in person, it would be even shinier. Like Ian said, we only have the Common Starling here.

When I look at how the feathers shine it reminds me of these verses:

Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; and teach me thy statutes. (Psalms 119:135 KJV)
But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. (Proverbs 4:18 KJV)
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. (Isaiah 9:2 KJV)

Starlings are in the Sturnidae – Starling Family of the Passeriformes (Perching Birds) Order.  The Sturnidae family has 118 members and the only members here in the U.S. are Common Starling and the Common Myna. The family is made up of mostly Starlings, 24 Mynas, 1 Coleto, and 3 Rhabdomis (at this time).

To see all of Ian’s photos of the Sturnidae Family – Click Here

He has photos of the Metallic, Common, Spotless, Asian-Pied and Red-winged Starlings and the Common, Bank and Jungle Myna.

To see other Bird of the Week articles by Ian – Click Here

*

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Scarlet Robin

by

0

Scarlet Robin (Petroica boodang) by Ian

Scarlet Robin (Petroica boodang) by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Scarlet Robin ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter and holiday wish – 12-24-10

Christmas and New Year is a time for tradition not (egregious) originality so here, without apology, is a Scarlet Robin to wish you season’s greeting. Okay, it’s not the classical European Robin – which featured as Bird of the Week on Christmas 2005 – but perhaps the closest we can get to in Australia. In fact, as a member of the Australo-Papuan Robins – the Petroicidae – rather than the Old World Flycatchers – the Muscicapidae – it’s not even closely related, but I don’t think science is very important when it comes to symbolism.

Anyway, whatever your creed or beliefs, I wish you a safe and peaceful holiday season and a fulfilling and happy 2011.

I also offer you an apology. I’ve just noticed that I sent an email, intended for the committee members of Birds Australia North Queenland, to the bird of the week list on the 14 December. I’m sorry if I mystified you but fortunately the email contained nothing controversial!

Links:
Australo-Papuan Robins
Old World Flycatchers
Eurasian Robin

Best wishes,
Ian

—
Ian Montgomery, Birdway Pty Ltd,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Phone: +61-7 4751 3115
Preferred Email: ian@birdway.com.au
Website: http://birdway.com.au

Lee’s Addition:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you also, Ian. Trust you enjoy the holidays and that in 2011 you find lots of more neat birds to introduce us to in your Bird of the Week articles. Always enjoy reading about your birdwatching adventures where ever you roam. You do seem to get around quite a bit.

My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. (Proverbs 3:1-2 ESV)

What a neat little bird. The Scarlet Robin is in the Petroicidae Family as Ian said and that family is in the Passeriformes Order.

See all of Ian’s Birds of the Week.

*

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Spectacled Antpitta

by

0

Streak-chested (Spectacled) Antpitta (Hylopezus perspicillatus) by Ian

Streak-chested (Spectacled) Antpitta (Hylopezus perspicillatus) by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Spectacled Antpitta ~ by Ian Montgomery

A friend of mine pointed out once that birds that stand upright and have short tails (long ones get in the way) look like little people and are consequently attractive. Penguins are the classic example, but there are plenty others, including the Pittas of Australia and Eurasia. Pittas don’t occur in the Americas but instead there are the unrelated but similar-looking Antpittas, members of the New World family Formicariidae, which occur from Mexico southwards.

Antpittas have similar habits to true Pittas and rummage around in leaf-litter in tropical and sub-tropical forest looking for invertebrate prey such as snails and worms. They are also easier to hear than see, so it was a pleasant surprise when we stumbled on this Spectacled Antpitta in Carara Wildlife Reserve in Costa Rica. It moved off through the undergrowth,but I struggled after it encumbered by a large lens and flash and managed to get a few photos of it peering suspiciously at me over its shoulder before disappearing. Incidentally, there are various groups of Central and South American birds, collectively called Antbirds, so named because some of them are found in association with army ants and feed on prey disturbed by the flow of ants across the landscape.

Streak-chested (Spectacled) Antpitta (Hylopezus perspicillatus) by Ian

Streak-chested (Spectacled) Antpitta (Hylopezus perspicillatus) by Ian

The Spectacled Antpitta ranges form Honduras in the north to Columbia in the south. There are about 50 species of Antpitta and there are photos of another species, the Moustached Antpitta, from Ecuador on the website. This is, I think, the last of the Costa Rican birds of the week as I’ve put most of the Costa Rican species on the website.

Recent additions to the website include the odd Yellow-thighed Finch – not a finch but a member of the Emberizidae – from Costa Rica and additional photos of a couple of terns from closer to home: the Little Tern and the Caspian Tern.

Links:
Other Antbirds:
True Pittas:

Last week, the link to the Black-necked Stilt mistakenly pointed to the American Avocet; it should have been: http://www.birdway.com.au/recurvirostridae/black_necked_stilt/source/black_necked_stilt_109873.htm . My apologies.

Best wishes,
Ian
—
Ian Montgomery, Birdway Pty Ltd,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Phone: +61-7 4751 3115
Preferred Email: ian@birdway.com.au
Website: http://birdway.com.au

Lee’s Addition:

Thanks Ian, for another great bird to find out about. Ian uses the Bird International list and we use the I.O.C.’s list of birds. The Spectacled Antpitta and the Streak-chested Antpitta are one in the same bird. That is where knowing the scientific name, “Hylopezus perspicillatus,” comes in handy. By either name, it does have a neat voice and below is a video link to one singing that I located.

The Antpittas are in the Grallariidae Family (IOC) of the Passeriformes Order.

Video of Streak-chested Antipitta singing by Dave Jackson

*