Category Archives: Bird of the Week

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

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Banded Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus cinctus) by Ian

Banded Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus cinctus) by Ian

Ian’s Newsletter – 09/18/2009

We did, in fact, find and photograph the White-quilled Rock-Pigeon on Wednesday, but rather than send another Rock-Pigeon as Bird of the Week, here is another, perhaps more photogenic, member of the pigeon family, the Banded Fruit-Dove. This was on my secondary target list (seen previously but not photographed) but high-priority none-the-less as it’s a splendid bird, uncommon and with a very restricted range in Australia, though it also occurs in Indonesia.

In Australia it occurs only in relict rain-forest patches in gullies of the sandstone escarpments of Arnhem Land and Kakadu. It’s usually shy and, like other fruit-doves, easier to hear than see as it usually keeps to to the foliage of fruiting trees. This bird, however, was gorging itself on the fruit of a tree with sparse foliage and didn’t seem to take much notice of us. It gets its name from the black band across the breast. The white head and breast makes it look rather like the Pied Imperial-Pigeon but is actually a member of the Ptilinopus genus that includes some of Australia’s most spectacular Fruit-Doves, the Wompoo, Rose-crowned and Superb (all at http://www.birdway.com.au/columbidae/index_aus.htm ).

We are still in Kununurra in Western Australia but start the return journey eastwards tomorrow. The hot weather hasn’t relented: it reached 41ºC yesterday, and it is easy to see why the local tourist season is almost finished – only mad dogs and birders etc.

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:

 

So I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. (Psalms 55:6 NKJV)

I added links to the other birds Ian mentioned above and more photos below:
Pied Imperial-Pigeon (Ducula bicolor)
Wompoo Fruit-Dove (Ptilinopus magnificus)
Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove (Ptilinopus regina)
Superb Fruit-Dove on a nest (Ptilinopus superbus)

Video of a Banded Fruit-Dove by Mark Sutton at IBC

Ptilinopus magnificus

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Chestnut-quilled Rock-Pigeon

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Chestnut-quilled Rock Pigeon (Petrophassa rufipennis) by Ian

Chestnut-quilled Rock Pigeon (Petrophassa rufipennis) by Ian

Ian’s Newsletter – 09/16/2009

This is really the bird of last week as this is the first opportunity I’ve had for internet access for 12 days. We are in Kununurra now in far northeastern Western Australia, having arrived here yesterday from the Northern Territory. We spent most of the time in the Kakadu area, followed by a couple of days in Pine Creek between Darwin and Katherine.

The Chestnut-quilled Rock-Pigeon was on my primary target list – birds that I hadn’t seen before – so I was pleased to find this single bird at Bardedjildidji, a sandstone escarpment in eastern Kakadu near Ubirr on the border with Arhnem Land. It obligingly flew past us before landing in this small cave not too far away and not too inaccessible. You can see the chestnut on the partially open wing.

There are two species of Rock-Pigeon – this one and the closely related White-quilled Rock-Pigeon. Both have limited distributions in northern Australia, the Chestnut-quilled in the Kakadu area and the White-quilled farther west in the Top end of the Northern Territory and across the border into Western Australia. Both are found in very rugged sandstone country where they take refuge in crevices and caves.

The White-quilled is one of the reasons for coming as far as Kununurra and we are going to look for this species later this afternoon when it cools down a bit. It has been very hot for almost our entire stay, reaching 37-38ºC almost every day. So, birding has been hard work a lot of the time.

I’ll send another catch-up bird of the week in a day or two while I have the opportunity here in Kununurra.

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: (bolding by Lee)

 

You who dwell in Moab, Leave the cities and dwell in the rock, And be like the dove which makes her nest In the sides of the cave’s mouth. (Jeremiah 48:28 NKJV)

One addition for us who use farenheit the 37-38° C is 98.6-100.4 F. Whew! That is hot!

“Description: (Collett 1898); Length 28 cm (12 – 12 1/2 inches). Head, neck, mantle & breast feathers dark sepia or dusky brown having a pale grey bases and buff fringes which form the scaly appearance. The throat & narrow stripe below & extending past the eye is white & is bordered above with a small black stripe extending thru the eye from the bill also bordered above with a thin white stripe. Primaries & secondaries bright chestnut with dark brown tips (chestnut color best seen when bird is in flight or stretching the wing). Belly and undertail dark brown. Eyes, bill, legs & feet dark brown. Female similar; juvenile are duller appearance.” from International Dove Society

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Red-faced Cormorant

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Red-faced Cormorant (Phalacrocorax urile) by Ian

Red-faced Cormorant (Phalacrocorax urile) by Ian

Newsletter 03-10-2009

Cormorants don’t often make it as Bird of the Week. People, particularly fishermen, mostly say or think “Uggh” when you say “cormorant” and even birders probably just tick them off without pausing in silent awe at their beauty. Cormorant, in general, lack style, hence the unflattering expression “like a shag on a rock”.

Well, here’s one that I think makes the grade. I particularly wanted to see Red-faced Cormorants when I was in Alaska last June. I wasn’t disappointed, particular when I got close to nesting birds on the cliffs of St Paul Island, and I give them high marks for their striking red and blue facial patterns, double crests, and startlingly iridescent plumage, worthy of some tropical wonder like a Bird of Paradise.

Red-faced Cormorant (Phalacrocorax urile) by Ian

Red-faced Cormorant (Phalacrocorax urile) by Ian

You have to go out of your way to see them, too. In North America, they occur only in southern Alaska, the Aleutians and the islands of the Bering Sea, though they are common within their restricted range, which extends across the Bering Sea to eastern Siberia and as far south as northern Japan.

On the website, I’ve been concentrating on updating galleries and indices to the latest format. One of the aims of this is to make it easier to navigate from one family to the next. I’m doing this through Previous and Next Family links on the top level (usually Global) thumbnail pages for each family (though not, at the moment, the lower Australian, Old World and New World thumbnail pages). This is progressing well. It is now possible to navigate through all the non-passerine families and I hope to fill the remaining gaps in the passerines (perching birds) soon. So, you can start at the first family, Cassowaries and Emus (http://www.birdway.com.au/casuariidae/index.htm) and follow the Next Family links all the way through 70 families as far as the New World Flycatchers (http://www.birdway.com.au/tyrannidae/index.htm) where the trail currently peters out with the New World Antbirds.

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 Cormorant is found in the list of unclean birds that the Israelites were not to eat.

And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant, (Deuteronomy 14:17 KJV)

See Also:
Cormorant page
Birds of the Bible – Cormorant
Cormorant Photos
Cormorant Videos
Phalacrocoracidae – Cormorants, shags

Ian’s Bird of the Week – (Pale-vented) Bush-hen

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Pale-vented Bush-hen (Amaurornis moluccana) by Ian

Pale-vented Bush-hen (Amaurornis moluccana) by Ian

Ian’s Newsletter 02-24-2009

Pale-vented Bush-hen (Amaurornis moluccana) by Ian

Pale-vented Bush-hen (Amaurornis moluccana) by Ian

Last week, when discussing Kittiwakes and red legs, I referred obliquely to a common phenomenon in birding when having finally seen what I wanted (red legs) I saw lots of them. Serious birders call these bogey birds, where serious means passionate (oneself) or obsessed (someone else) and bogey means an evil spirit, or species, that leads you on a lengthy wild goose chase. The chase ends when a careless bird breaks the taboo by letting you see it and then, miraculously, the veil is lifted from your eyes and they appear everywhere.

Probably the two most challenging bogey birds in North Queensland, worse than Cassowaries, are unsurprisingly crakes: the (Pale-vented – a la Christidis & Boles, 2008) Bush-hen and the Red-necked Crake. I’d spent 6 years up here before I briefly spotted a startled Bush-hen from a speeding car (I wasn’t driving) and, after 7 years, I still haven’t had a proper view of a Red-necked Crake.

Pale-vented Bush-hen (Amaurornis moluccana) by Ian

Pale-vented Bush-hen (Amaurornis moluccana) by Ian

Typically, two weeks after seeing the Bush-hen (this time last year) a family of them appeared in my back yard, visible from the back verandah. Last Thursday, I was working on the website in the study, and went to make a cup of coffee when I spotted a Bush-hen in full view on the edge of the swimming pool. Unfortunately, the bird saw me move inside the house to get the camera and all I could manage was a shot of a nervous bird sneaking away through the vegetation. I left the camera and tripod set up in the house, just in case, and the bird reappeared a couple of hours later. It had a drink on the left hand side of the pool (photo no. 1) flew across the pool to a shallow spot for a swim (no. 2) and then spent about 10 minutes preening on a rock (no. 3). The bird came back again for another session on Saturday.
Both the days in question were sunny and very hot (33ºC/91ºF) and it was the middle of the day. The field guide says ” . . . secretive . . .emerges on overcast mornings, evenings . . .”, I like to imagine that they’re nesting again and the pool becomes irresistible during a tiresome day incubating eggs.

Back at the website, revised galleries include:
Falcons (http://www.birdway.com.au/falconidae/index.htm)
New World Vultures (http://www.birdway.com.au/cathartidae/index.htm)
Rails and Allies (http://www.birdway.com.au/rallidae/index.htm)
New World Flycatchers (http://www.birdway.com.au/tyrannidae/index.htm)
Cotingas (http://www.birdway.com.au/cotingidae/index.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:

 

For I satisfy the weary ones and refresh everyone who languishes. (Jeremiah 31:25 NASB)

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Green-backed Gerygone

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Green-backed Gerygone by Ian

Green-backed Gerygone by Ian

Ian’s 9/3/09 Newsletter – Bird of the Week: Green-backed Gerygone

Once again, my apologies for a late posting. I’ve just spent 5 days – with a 2 night stop at Mataranka – driving the 2,500km from Townsville to Darwin for the photography trip I mentioned last week. I usually prepare a trip wish-list of target species: this one has 35 on it, consisting of 9 that I haven’t seen before (the “tick” list), 9 that I have seen but haven’t photographed (the “click” list) and the remainder are candidates for better photos.

Last week’s bird was the widespread songster the White-throated Gerygone, so maybe it’s appropriate that the first target achieved – one of the 9 potential clicks – was the Green-backed Gerygone. The photo shows its diagnostic features: grey head, greenish-grey back and red eye. It may look rather nondescript but the greenish back is quite noticeable and it has a distinctive song. It feeds in typical gerygone style, foraging in the middle canopy of trees and hovering around foliage. There was a typo in last week’s email: gerugonos, not gerugogos, means something like “born of sound” in Greek but you were all too polite to point it out.

In Australia, it has a restricted distribution, occurring only in the Top End of the Northern Territory and the adjacent Kimberley region of northwest Western Australia. It is, however, quite common and we had no trouble finding it at Buffalo Creek near Darwin, where I’d seen it on a previous trip in 2002. It also occurs in New Guinea. Buffalo Creek is famous among birders as a stake-out for the elusive Chestnut Rail – http://www.birdway.com.au/rallidae/chestnut_rail/index.htm – which proved typically elusive this time even though several were to be heard in the mangroves.

We leave Darwin for Kakadu tomorrow and will probably spend a week there. So, I plan send you a catch-up bird of the week before we leave, as we’ll be camping most of the time and may not have internet access.

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

Lee’s Addition:

Fairy Gerygone (Gerygone palpebrosa) by Ian

Fairy Gerygone (Gerygone palpebrosa) by Ian

Gerygones, as one might expect, is not a bird I have enjoyed seeing, except through the lens of Ian and others. With the internet’s ability to share things, you get to learn about and “see” things you would not get the chance to do as easily. Thanks, Ian, for sharing your birding adventures.
Gerygones belong to the Australasian Warbler – Acanthizidae Family and are in the Gerygone species of which there are 19 of them. They are the Brown, Grey, Norfolk, Chatham, Fan-tailed, Treefern, Golden-bellied, Rufous-sided, Mangrove, Plain, Western, Dusky, Large-billed, Biak, Yellow-bellied, Ashy, Green-backed (this one), White-throated (last week’s), and the Fairy Gerygones. The ones with links will take you to Ian’s photos.

It was a little hard to find out much about the Gerygone, but here are some of my finds for the missing birds that Ian still needs to go find.

Grey Gerygone – video ,   Golden-bellied – video ,    Plain-Sound , all at IBC (Internet Bird Collecton)

Sounds like Ian has found a “catch.” It is always exciting when you find and photograph a rare bird. That is a part of the joy of birdwatching. When you search, scan, listen, know it’s there and then finally find that prize.

What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. (Matthew 18:12-13)

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Red-legged Kittiwake

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Red-legged Kittiwake (Rissa brevirostris) by Ian

Red-legged Kittiwake (Rissa brevirostris) by Ian

Ian’s Newsletter 02/17/2009

If, like me, you were a birdwatcher in the British Isles in the 1960s, you would have been been familiar with the Kittiwake, a delightful small gull usually seen at its dense nesting colonies on steep cliffs, and named after its call. You may also have wondered why, as British birdwatchers became less insular, the name was later qualified by the description “Black-legged”. This was done somewhat reluctantly, naturally, and my 1999 Collins Bird Guide still calls it (Black-legged) Kittiwake. Anyway, or as they say now, whatever, here is the reason: the Red-legged Kittiwake.

Red-legged Kittiwake (Rissa brevirostris) by Ian

Red-legged Kittiwake (Rissa brevirostris) by Ian

This was one of my must-see birds on St Paul Island in the Bering Sea on my trip to Alaska last June. Although not nearly as common as its Black-legged relative, it wasn’t hard to find. The red legs were a poor field mark, however, as the birds were either sitting on water, sitting on nests or flying past with their legs tucked snugly and sensibly into their vent feathers. With a little practice, it wasn’t hard to distinguish them by their darker wings and wing-linings, shorter, rather stubby bills and slightly smaller size, as in the photo of the Red-legged Kittiwake on the left sitting on its nest beside its similarly-occupied relative.

In fact red legs became an obsession, so that on the last morning seeing them became my only goal in life, and I set up my camera on a cliff-top with an incubating Red-legged Kittiwake in the sights and waited patiently. Eventually, I was rewarded and a rather stiff bird got up to stretch its legs and check its single egg, as in the second photo. After that, of course, the Kittiwakes came out to play and I saw red legs everywhere both on birds in flight and perched showily on rocks, third photo.

Red-legged and Black-legged Kittiwakes by Ian

Red-legged and Black-legged Kittiwakes by Ian

The Red-legged Kittiwake breeds at only 6 sites in the Bering Sea, the most important of which is St George, near St Paul, with 60% of the estimated world population of 100,000 pairs. It has more specialized feeding habits than the Black-legged, feeding mainly on squid and small fish. Its population is declining, breeding success is poor and it is classed as vulnerable. Commercial trawling is though to be responsible. It’s call is described as a high, falsetto, repeated ‘suWEEEr’, quite different from the ‘kitt-i-waake’ of the Black-legged. Maybe it should be renamed and we can go back to simple “Kittiwake”. Recent website revisions: Thrushes (http://www.birdway.com.au/turdidae/index.htm); Old World Flycatchers (http://www.birdway.com.au/muscicapidae/index.htm); Fringillid Finches (http://www.birdway.com.au/fringillidae/index.htm) and Estrildid Finches (http://www.birdway.com.au/estrildidae/index.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:

 

“On the cliff he dwells and lodges, Upon the rocky crag, an inaccessible place. (Job 39:28 NASB)

This verse applied to the Eagle, but it is also applicable to the Kittiwakes.

Ian’s Bird of the Week – White-throated Gerygone

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White-throated Gerygony by Ian

White-throated Gerygony by Ian

Bird of the Week: White-throated Gerygone

My apologies for a late posting this week – I’ve been trying to clear the decks in preparation for a trip to the Northern Territory in a few days. I hope this trip will fill a few gaps in Northern birds that I can share with you in the coming weeks.

Here’s a bird at the other end of the size scale from the Wedge-tailed Eagle of last week: the White-throated Gerygone. With a length of 10-11.5 cm./4-4.5 in., it’s not much bigger than Australia’s smallest bird, the Weebill (8-9 cm). Size isn’t everything, however – unless you’re an eagle – and the White-throated Gerygone has perhaps the most beautiful song of any Australian songbird. The field guides wax lyrical – let me quote Michael Morecombe: ‘Loud, clear, carrying. Usually begins with several loud, piercing, high notes immediately followed by pure, high, clearly whistled, violin-like notes that descend in an undulating, silvery, sweet cascade, at times lifting briefly, only to resume the downward, tumbling momentum. Abruptly returns to the initial louder, sharper notes to repeat the whole sequence, often with slight variations.’

This species is widespread in eastern and northern Australia from Adelaide in South Australia to the western Kimberleys in Western Australia. In addition to its distinctive song, it can be identified by its white, throat, yellow breast, red eye and white spots on the tips of the tail feathers.

There are eight species of Gerygone in mainland Australia and another twelve or so in the rest of Oceania (New Zealand to New Guinea). They used to be called Warblers, but are usually called Gerygones now (the name of the Genus) to avoid confusion with the unrelated Old World Warblers and the Wood Warblers of the New World – the Gerygones belong to the family Acanthizidae, along with other small birds including Thornbills, Scrubwrens, Heathwrens and Whitefaces. All the Gerygones are accomplished vocalists, and the word derives from the Greek – gerugogos – meaning something like ‘born of sound’. There has been much debate on how to pronounce Gerygone, but Sean Dooley had the final word in his book Anoraks to Zitting Cisticolas: ‘Not Jerry gone (or Gerry with a hard G), but more like Ja-rig-eny, rhyming with aborigine.’ It’s ironic that such beautiful singers should be be lumbered with such an ugly name.

My thanks to those who supported the petition to stop the poisoning of Golden Eagles in Ireland. Members of the list from at least Australia, Italy, Ireland and the USA added their names and Australia moved from 9th (85 signatures) to 8th (116 signatures) in the list of countries.

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

Another Whtie-throated Gerygone by Ian

Another Whtie-throated Gerygone by Ian

Lee’s Additions:
He’s not the only one behind in posting. So there will be another one right soon. Since his next one is also going to be about another Gerygone, I’ll save my additions for there.

Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 6:26 NKJV)

Here’s are two  interesting videos of a White-throated Gerygone at the nest. From Internet Bird Collection by Nick Talbot – CLICK HERE and CLICK HERE

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Cedar Waxwing

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Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) by Ian

Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) by Ian

Ian’s February 9, 2009 Newsletter

An American birder once said to me something to this effect: “you’re so lucky in Australia, all our North American birds are so drab by comparison”. It may be the case that American Parrots are thin on the ground since the sad demise of the Carolina Parakeet, but I think, nonetheless, that there are lots of fascinating American birds, and I’ve expressed regret in the past for the lack of Woodpeckers in Australia, for example. Here is one that is exotic by any standards, the Cedar Waxwing, and is quite common across the United States and, in summer, southern Canada.

This bird was one of a flock in a small reserve (McClellan Ranch Park) on the edge of Cupertino in the Bay Area last May. Waxwings are very partial to berries and range widely looking for food. The get their name from red, waxy tips to the secondaries, but these are often indistinct or missing, and are not visible in the photograph.

There are three species of Waxwings, the other two being the Japanese Waxwing and the (Bohemian) Waxwing of Western North America and northern Eurasia. The Bohemian Waxwing, slightly larger than the Cedar one, occasionally makes it to the British Isles in winter from northern Scandinavia and I remember seeing some once as a teenager in a suburban street in Dublin in the early 1960s. They looked very exotic to me then too.

Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) by Ian

Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) by Ian

Here in North Queensland, we have felt very helpless watching the rain deluging down while terrible bush fires have raged in Victoria. The website has benefitted, though, from my being confined to home. In the past week I’ve updated the galleries for Wrens (http://www.birdway.com.au/troglodytidae/index.htm), Mockingbirds (http://www.birdway.com.au/mimidae/index.htm), Tits and Chickadees (http://www.birdway.com.au/paridae/index.htm), Cormorants and Shags (http://www.birdway.com.au/phalacrocoracidae/index.htm), and Grebes (http://www.birdway.com.au/podicipedidae/index.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

Japanese Waxwing (Bombycilla japonica) ©Wikipedia

Japanese Waxwing (Bombycilla japonica) ©Wikipedia

Lee’s Additions:

Cedar Waxwings have a diet of “fruit, flower petals, and insects.” They sometimes pass fruit back and forth and have been known to become very intoxicated by eating too many ripe berries. They are about 7 in (17.8 cm) long with a wingspan of 11-12.25 in (27.9-31.1 cm). Both the Bohemian and Cedar have a yellow trim on their tails, whereas, the Japanese waxwing has a red-trimmed tail.

See (Info and Sounds):

Bombyacillidae – Waxwings
Cedar Waxwing – WhatBird.com
Bohemian Waxwing – WhatBird.com
Japanese Waxwing – Wikipedia

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Varied Sittella

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Female Varied Sittella (Daphoenositta chrysoptera) by Ian

Female Varied Sittella (Daphoenositta chrysoptera) by Ian

Like the Australian Ringneck of last week, here is another variable species that occurs in easily recognizable races in different regions of mainland Australia: the Varied Sittella. I updated the Sittella gallery on the website on Saturday to include the southern ‘Black-capped Sittella’ and the nominate ‘Orange-winged Sittella’ that I’d recently photographed in South Australia and Victoria. Then, on Monday, when camping with friends in White Mountains National Park between Charters Towers and Hughendon, we came across the northeastern race, the ‘Striated Sittella’, so I’ve added 5 photos of this race to the gallery (http://www.birdway.com.au/neosittidae/varied_sittella/index.htm).
The first photo, the rather dapper-looking, left-facing bird with a dark head is a female Striated Sittella, while the drabber, right-facing bird is a male. Unlike other birds in which drabber males are characteristic of reproductive role reversals, that isn’t the case here, and, to add to the confusion, in some races of Sittellas the male is the smarter one and in one race (the White-headed) both genders are similarly smart.

Male Varied Sittella (Daphoenositta chrysoptera) by Ian

Male Varied Sittella (Daphoenositta chrysoptera) by Ian

Sittellas are tiny (11 – 13 cm./4.3 – 5 in. long) and usually hang around (literally) in small groups in the upper branches of trees, so are easily overlooked. They are most easily detected when they fly chattering frantically from one tree to another, and when they do so their pale wing bars (white in some races, orange in others) and stubby appearance are distinctive. They search for insects and spiders in bark and timber and not only are they proficient at hanging upside down, but it is their preferred mode of locomotion and, unlike treecreepers, they work their way downwards from the crowns of trees.

If you are familiar with the Nuthatches () of Eurasia and North America, you’ll already have been struck by the resemblance, and the name Sittella is derived from Sitta, the name of the Nuthatch genus. The similarity is due to convergent evolution as the two groups are not closely related. The family name for Nuthatches is Sittidae, while the Sittellas have their own family, the Neosittidae, or new Sittidae. There are only two species, the Varied Sittella of Australia and the Black Sittella of New Guinea.

The five flavours of the Sittellas are, starting with the nominate race and working clock-wise around Australia:

  • The Orange-winged Sittella – Most of NSW and Victoria;
  • The Black-capped Sittella (pileata) – South Australia and Southern Western Australia;
  • The White-winged Sittella (leucoptera) – Northern Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Northwestern and Central Queensland;
  • The Striated Sittella (striata) – Northeastern Queensland;
  • The White-headed Sittella (leucocephala) – Central and Southeastern Queensland and Northeastern NSW.

There are now representatives of all these races except the White-headed on the website (http://www.birdway.com.au/neosittidae/varied_sittella/index.htm).
Best wishes,
Ian
—
Ian Montgomery, Birdway Pty Ltd,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Phone: +61-7 4751 3115
Website: http://birdway.com.au

Lee’s Additions:
These newsletters are not necessarily in the correct order as Ian wrote them. I am still catching up.
They are similar to our “nuthatches” but not in the same family or do they build their nest the same. “The feet of the Varied Sitella are small but with very long toes for clinging onto branches. They move in spirals down trees, searching for food, and even hang below branches.” from the first article listed below.
Birds in the Backyards – Varied Sittella from Australia has the best information.

SITTELLAS Neosittidae from the Bird Families of the World, has some information.

The Internet Bird Collection has several videos of the Varied Sittella. All taken by Geoffrey Dabb (Videos used with his permission)

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Ian’s Bird of the Week – Black Swan

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Western Australian stamp, in 1854

Western Australian stamp, in 1854

Here’s a famous Australian icon, or perhaps I should say, Western Australian Icon – the Black Swan appears on the state coat of arms, reflecting Perth’s original name as the Swan River Settlement. The first Western Australian stamp, in 1854, was a Penny Black, but featured a Black Swan and not Queen Victoria. I first became aware of it as junior stamp collector in Ireland when Australia issued a stamp celebrating the centenary of this stamp. Living in a land of white swans, I found the idea of a black swan bizarre.

Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) by Ian

Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) by Ian

Anyway, I photographed this bird emerging festooned in sea grass in St Kilda in Melbourne. Black Swans are almost exclusively vegetarian, and feed by dabbling, grazing or, like this one, upending. When it first emerged, it made a languid effort to remove some of the sea grass, looking as if it was adjusting its boa, as in the first photo. It then seemed to decide it wasn’t worth the effort and came out of the water still draped in green.

Black Swans betray their evolutionary affinity with white ones, by having white flight feathers, though these are usually only visible – and then strikingly so – in flight. In fact, the Black Swan is though to be very closely related to both the Mute Swan http://www.birdway.com.au/anatidae/mute_swan/index.htm of Eurasia and the Black-necked Swan of South America (the only other one of the 6 or 7 species of swan that isn’t entirely white). With a length of up to 140cm/55in, a wingspan of up to 200cm/79in and a weight of up to 9kg/20lbs, the Black Swan is rather small by Swan standards – the corresponding figures for the largest, the Mute Swan, are 160cm/64in, 240cm/95in, and 15kg/33lbs.

Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) by Ian

Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) by Ian

The Black Swan is widespread and abundant throughout mainland Australia and Tasmania, except in the top end of the Northern Territory and Cape York. It is also common in New Zealand, where it was introduced.

I’ve been adding marsupials to the Other Wildlife section on the website including:
Northern Brown Bandicoot
Koala
Brushtail Possum
Ringtail Possum and
Musky Rat-Kangaroo

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

 

 

Black Swan Face by Lee at Lake Morton

Black Swan Face by Lee at Lake Morton

Lee’s Additions:

It was interesting to find out from Ian that the Black Swan is also down in Australia. We watch them all the time here when we are at Lake Morton in Lakeland, FL. I love the coloring on their beak. It is red with a white stripe around it. Also, the Swan is one of the birds mentioned in the Bible in the list of birds not to eat.

The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan, (Deuteronomy 14:16 KJV)

They have short legs and do not spring from the water to take flight. They run on the surface for about 15-20 feet while beating their wings to get airborne.

Interesting Links:

Black Swan – Wikipedia

Black Swan with cygnets by Craig’s Bird Watching and Nature Blog

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Australian Hobby

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Australian Hobby by Ian

Australian Hobby by Ian

Bird of the Week: Australian Hobby by Ian Montgomery

“This, as you’ll see could also be titled the Birder and the Bird or, if you’re into puns, His Hobby and the Hobby.

Cars can make good hides, or blinds, as some birds take much less notice of them than of people on foot. This Australian Hobby, or Little Falcon as the species is sometimes called, proved to be quite approachable by car and I was able to park below the tree in which it was perched and take lots of photos through the car window. This was when we were at wonderful Bowra property in SW Queensland last November and, little did I know I was being photographed by my friends in the car behind.
Maybe I should qualify the comment and say that large, spacious cars make good hides for photographers with large lenses.  You can guess from seeing my right foot on the window frame, that I had to indulge in spine-threatening contortions to get the camera at the right angle. There are no half-measures when it comes to taking photos for the Bird of the Week.
Australian Hobbies are widespread throughout Australia but not particularly common, so it’s always good to see one. They’re very dashing, like a small (to 35cm/14in in lenght) Peregrine Falcon and relentlessly pursue small birds and, at dusk, large insects. They occur in a wide variety of habitats with trees, so you are just as like to see them in leafy suburbs as in the drier forests of the outback.
Ian using car as blind

Ian using car as blind

I’m getting close to finishing re-working the website with the new gallery layouts and Next and Previous Family links on the global family index pages. Soon it will be possible to browse through the entire site in taxonomic order and I’m planning other ways to make the site easier to navigate around. The wet season seems to be ending here, so I’m planning some birding trips in the next couple of months, concentrating on Australian birds. I have now finished putting up all the American species from my trip last year.

Recent updates include:
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

Newsletter supplied by and used with Ian’s Permission.

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

Lee’s Additions:

 

The Australian Hobby is in the Falconiformes Order and the Falconadae family which includes Falcons, Caracaras, Hobbies, Falconets and Kestrels. Falcons are one of the Birds of the Bible and you can check some information at my Falcons page to see links to articles, photos, and videos of the Falcon family. Most of the Falcon Family Photos are by Ray’s Wildlife Photography who shoots mostly North American birds. Both he and Ian are fantastic photographers.

As for the earth, from it comes bread, But underneath it is turned up as by fire; Its stones are the source of sapphires, And it contains gold dust. That path no bird knows, Nor has the falcon’s eye seen it. (Job 28:5-7 NKJV)

See Also:
Australian Hobby – Wikipedia
Falconidae by Wikipedia
Falcons Falconadae by List of Bird Families of the World, 9th ed.

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Chowchilla

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This week’s photo wouldn’t win any photographic competitions, but the Chowchilla – http://www.birdway.com.au/orthonychidae/chowchilla/index.htm – is an interesting bird and there’s a story to go with the photo.

Chowchilla - Orthonychidae family - by Ian

Chowchilla – Orthonychidae family – by Ian

The Chowchilla is one of two Australian members of a rather obscure family, Orthonychidae, or Logrunners. The Chowchilla, which used to be called the Northern Logrunner, is a wet tropics endemic and is reasonably common in dense rainforest between Paluma, north of Townsville – where this photo of a male was taken – and Cooktown, north of Cairns. They’re best known for their loud, ringing calls – ‘chow, chowchilla, etc’ – made by family groups at dawn and dusk to maintain their territories. It’s one of the great sounds of the wet tropics rainforest.

When they aren’t loudly proclaiming their sovereignty, they use their very strong legs to rummage around in leaf litter looking for food. If you’re lucky, you can hear them scratching around and you may seem them dart across the path in front of you. They are reasonably approachable, but usually stay well hidden in the tangled undergrowth of the rainforest which – in combination with the poor light – makes them very hard to photograph. The females, incidentally, are brighter than the males and have a rufous breast and white belly, though in the gloom of the rainforest, rufous is perhaps less conspicuous than white.

On this occasion, I was waiting – flash at the ready not long before sunset – in the hope that one or other of a small group of Chowchillas would cross the path, when I felt a faint wriggling sensation on my lip and then on my upper gum. ‘Yuk, leech!!!’ I thought and was then faced with the dilemma of whether I should remain still in the hope of getting some photos or try to get rid of the leech. Clearly, the photo opportunity won the tussle and I then had the problem of extracting the leech. It’s hard enough to grab hold of one at the best of times, but quite impossible when its covered in saliva and out of sight. In the end, I had to make my way back to the car, half a kilometer away so I could use the mirror to find and get rid of it.

Anyway, back to the Ornthonychidae. The other Australian species is the (Southern) Logrunner – http://www.birdway.com.au/orthonychidae/logrunner/index.htm – which has a limited distribution in coastal forests in southeast Queensland and New South Wales as far south as the Illawarra – common in SE Queensland, much rarer in NSW. There is a third species in New Guinea, the New Guinea Logrunner, which looks like the Southern Logrunner. There are also a few other little known species in New Guinea – the Greater and Lesser Melampittas and the Blue-capped Ifrita – which may belong to this family too, but little is known about them.
I’m at last reasonably up-to-date in posting birds to the website, so I’ve now started adding photos of other wildlife, starting with Australian mammals. This doesn’t mark any great change in emphasis, but I do photograph other wildlife when I stumble across them and I do get requests for photos of things other than birds. So far, I’ve added Platypus and Echidna and Antechinus (marsupial mouse) – http://www.birdway.com.au/dasyuridae/index.htm – and will soon add more marsupials. The new section is accessible via a new navigation button called ‘Other Wildlife’ that replaces the old ‘Contact Details’, now combined with the ‘About Ian’ section. Watch this space, as they say.
Best wishes,
IanPreferred Email: ian@birdway.com.au

Website: http://birdway.com.au

Lee’s additions:

 

To Hear a Chowchilla – Click Here

Several nice videos  from Internet Bird Collection: Chowchilla (Orthonyx spaldingii) especially the first one “A male removing dry leaves and feeding”

LOGRUNNERS Orthonychidae from Bird Families of the World, 9th ed.