Tag Archives: Ian Montgomery

Ian’s Bird of the Week – White-headed Pigeon

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White-headed Pigeon (Columba leucomela) by Ian

White-headed Pigeon (Columba leucomela) by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – White-headed Pigeon ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter – 6/15/11

I’ve been preoccupied recently preparing photos for the digital publication that I first mentioned two weeks ago, so I haven’t taken many photos and hadn’t decided on this week’s bird when I took a break yesterday to put out the garbage. On the way back from the front gate, I spotted an adult male White-headed Pigeon feeding on the fruit of a boxwood shrub and took the long way round to the house to get my camera. The adult White-headed Pigeon was on my wanted list for the digital publication and hasn’t featured as a bird of the week, so two problems were solved simultaneously by just taking out the garbage. There’s a lesson there somewhere, I’m unsure what, but I do recall another occasion when I photographed Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos on a trip to the garbage dump: http://www.birdway.com.au/cacatuinae/red_tailed_black_cockatoo/source/redtailblackcockatoo02242.htm .

White-headed Pigeon (Columba leucomela) by Ian

White-headed Pigeon (Columba leucomela) by Ian

I disturbed him from the boxwood, but he flew up into a poinciana tree near the house (first photo) before retreating into the thicker foliage of what I think is an African mahogany (second photo), where he remained for ages.

White-headed Pigeons are large (to 41cm/16in in length) and rather splendid with their red and white faces and slightly iridescent bluish grey wing feathers. Here in North Queensland, they occur usually only in highland rainforest, and this is the first one that I’ve seen here near the coast, though farther south in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales (their stronghold) they do occur in coastal areas. The range from Cooktown in the north to about Bermagui on the south coast of NSW but, like other fruit-eating pigeons, they are fairly nomadic and sometimes occur in eastern Victoria. So, I don’t know whether this one is yet another refugee from cyclone Yasi or has just wandered down from the Paluma Range looking for food, as other birds do in winter.

White-headed Pigeon (Columba leucomela) by Ian

White-headed Pigeon (Columba leucomela) by Ian

The third photo is an immature bird that I photographed some years ago in rainforest near O’Reilly’s Lodge in Lamington National Park in southeastern Queensland near the border with NSW. Immature birds have greyish, rather than white heads and breasts and a dark cap. Females are intermediate in colour between the juveniles and the adult male and also have the whitish cheek visible on the juvenile.

On a completely different subject have a look at this youtube video  if you want to see the piece that the recorder group to which I belong entered in the Recorder Romp competition organised recently by the ABC.

Best wishes
Ian

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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:

Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes. (Song of Solomon 1:15 KJV)

Doves are in the Columbidae Family of the Columbiformes Order.

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Ian’s Bird of the Week – Red-billed Tropicbird

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Red-billed Tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus) by Ian Montgomery

Red-billed Tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus) by Ian Montgomery

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Red-billed Tropicbird ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter – 6/6/11

Last November a Red-billed Tropicbird was recorded on Lord Howe Island (http://aussiebirding.wildiaries.com/species/23736). This is the first Australian record and it is a long way from its closest breeding colonies in the Galapagos. I photographed this species in 2005 at another Ecuadorean site, Isla de la Plata (‘Silver Island’) so I thought I’d share it with you as Tropicbirds are among my favourite birds. Lord Howe Island, incidentally, has breeding Red-tailed Tropicbirds (http://www.birdway.com.au/phaethontidae/red_tailed_tropicbird/index.htm). Isla de la Plata is often called the poor man’s Galapagos as it’s a mere 40km from the Ecuadorean coast as can be visited on a day trip for about $40 and has some of the Galapagos specialties such as the Blue-footed Booby (http://www.birdway.com.au/sulidae/blue_footed_booby/index.htm).

Red-billed Tropicbird by Ian Montgomery

Red-billed Tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus) by Ian Montgomery

The Red-billed Tropicbird is easily distinguished from the closely related Red-tailed by its white tail streamers and black barring on the back and wings (first photo). It is the largest of the three species with a body length of about 50cm/20in, tail streamers of at least another 50cm/20in and a wingspan of about 1metre/40in. The two tail streamer feathers are longer in the male and used in aerial display and may also be used as a rudder in flight. They are fragile, often broken (second photo) and are replaced continually.

The courtship display of the Red-billed Tropicbird starts with a number of birds flying around near the colony which is usually on a rocky cliff. A pair of birds may then separate from the flock and start synchronised aerobatics, as in the third photo. This time I’ve embedded the photos in the body of the email; if this causes any problems, eg with older email programs that don’t support HTML, just let me know ian@birdway.com.au and I’ll revert to attaching them.
Red-billed Tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus) by Ian Montgomery

Red-billed Tropicbird by Ian Montgomery

This display may lead to a choice of nest site (from the air). Tropicbirds have webbed feet and weak legs and can move only with difficulty on land, so the choice of inaccessible cliff sites is supposed to offer protection from terrestrial predators and allow easy take off.

They feed by diving for prey, often flying fish and squid, as do gannets and boobies and, like them, have air sacs in the head and neck to absorb the impact of hitting the water. The tropical waters in which they feed have low prey densities so they travel far and when not breeding lead a pelagic existence. They aren’t closely related to gannet and boobies; DNA studies suggest that they have no close relatives and Christidis and Boles (2008) place the three members of the Tropicbird family, the Phaethontidae, in their own order, the Phaethontiformes. The third and smallest species is the White-tailed Tropicbird, best known in Australia as the apricot-coloured morph found on Christmas Island and known locally as the Golden Bosunbird (http://www.birdway.com.au/phaethontidae/white_tailed_tropicbird/index.htm).
I’ve had an encouraging response to last week’s request for photos of Australian birds that I can’t supply, with about 60 species of the wanted list being offered. There are still 200 to go, so have a look at the update wanted list to see if you can help.
On the website, I recently changed my policy of not including captive birds under any circumstances and have added photos of a Malleefowl (http://www.birdway.com.au/megapodiidae/malleefowl/index.htm) and Little Penguins (http://www.birdway.com.au/spheniscidae/little_penguin/index.htm)  in tolerably natural-looking sets.
Best wishes,
Ian
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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:

Ian made some interesting observations about the Tropicbirds:

  • Have webbed feet
  • Have weak legs
  • Can move only with difficulty on land
  • The choice of inaccessible cliff sites is supposed to offer protection from terrestrial predators and allow easy take off.
  • When diving for prey air sacs in the head and neck absorb the impact of hitting the water.

Looks like these features add up to a neatly created design to provide for and protect the tropicbirds.

Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens. (Gen 1:20)

The Tropicbirds are in the Phaethontidae – Tropicbirds Family. There are only three species in the family and they are the only family in the Phaethontiformes Order.

More of Ian’s Birds of the Week – Click Here

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Ian’s Bird of the Week – Crimson-crested Woodpecker

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Crimson-crested Woodpecker (Campephilus melanoleucos) by Ian

Crimson-crested Woodpecker (Campephilus melanoleucos) by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Crimson-crested Woodpecker ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter – 5/29/11

Those of you who have been on the list for a few years might remember from earlier posts that I’ve led a woodpecker-deprived existence, having lived first in Ireland and since then in Australia. Woody Woodpecker captured my imagination at an early age and I’ve been fascinated with woodpeckers ever since.

I was updating the woodpecker galleries on the website http://www.birdway.com.au/picidae/index.htm and this one made me laugh, so I though I’d share it with you. In the first photo it looks as if it’s staring in guilty shock at the tree and saying “Whoops! (or something stronger) Did I do that?” The second photo follows the same theme with a puzzled “Where did that tree go?” If you can think of better captions, please share them with me at ian@birdway.com.au and I’ll publish the best one next week.

Crimson-crested Woodpecker (Campephilus melanoleucos) by Ian

Crimson-crested Woodpecker (Campephilus melanoleucos) by Ian

The Crimson-crested Woodpecker (Campephilus melanoleucos) is 36cm/14in in length and a close relative of the larger (at least 48cm/19in) and legendary, maybe-extinct-maybe-not Ivory-billed Woodpecker of the southern USA (Campephilus principalis) about which there was so much excitement in 2004-5. The Crimson-crested is happily quite common with a wide range in northern South America. Campephilus incidentally means ‘grub loving’ as this group of woodpeckers finds the larvae of wood-boring beetles to their liking.

I photographed this Crimson-crested Woodpecker in 2005 from the dug-out canoe in the third photo, when staying at a lodge called Sani on the Rio Napo, a tributary of the Amazon, in eastern Ecuador. The lodge was on an oxbow lake away from the main river and the canoes, being very quiet, were ideal for bird watching though using a heavy (and expensive) 500mm lens in the canoe took some practice, not to mention recklessness.

Crimson-crested Woodpecker (Campephilus melanoleucos) by Ian Sani Canoe

Crimson-crested Woodpecker from Sani on the Rio Napo Canoe by Ian

Ireland happily is no longer a woodpecker-free zone as the Greater-spotted Woodpecker is in the process of colonising the country, after a big increase in the population in Britain, with successful breeding being report in Co. Down since 2005, Co. Wicklow since 2009 and Co. Wexford since 2010. See http://wlx.bright-server.com/do/ecco.py/view_item?listid=1&listcatid=1075&listitemid=8021&live=0 . We might have to wait a bit longer, though, for any Asian woodpeckers to come island-hopping across the Wallace line to Australia and eucalyptus mightn’t suit them.

I’ve started suppling photos of Australian birds to Guy Gibbon for a multimedia version of Pizzey and Knight for PCs and mobiles and I’ve also been given the task of sourcing photos that I can’t supply (both species and plumages). If you are interested, or know anyone who might be, I’d like to hear from you ian@birdway.com.au . Have a look at this News item on the website http://www.birdway.com.au/#aus_photos which has a link to the list of initially required species http://www.birdway.com.au/pdfs/wanted_species.pdf and links to similar publications by Guy covering British-Irish and Southern African birds.

Best wishes
Ian
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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:

Woody Woodpecker was also a favorite of mine. Here in the U. S., we have the Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus),  which seems to be quite similar to this Crimson-crested. Pileated adults are (40 to 49 centimetres (16 to 19 in) long; 250 to 350 grams (8.8 to 12 oz) mass) are mainly black with a red crest and a white line down the sides of the throat. That compares to the 36cm/14in of the Crimson-crested.  Apparently the Pileated is larger and in a different genus. There are 225 woodpeckers world-wide. The Piciformes Order has not only Woodpeckers – Picidae Family, but also eight other families.

The trees of the LORD are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted; Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house. (Psalms 104:16-17 KJV)

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Ian’s Bird of the Week – Masked Booby

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Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) by Ian

Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Masked Booby ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter – 5/20/11

We got a good view of a female Lesser Frigatebird at Lucinda on Wednesday when we did our regular wader count so I considered this species for bird of the week, forgetting that it had featured in March. So here is another spectacular seabird instead: the Masked Booby.

Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) by Ian

Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) by Ian

The first photo shows a portrait of a male bird, distinguishable from the female by its yellow bill. That of the female, second photo, has a greenish tinge to it. As you can see from these photos, Boobies are very approachable and the name comes from the Spanish ‘bobo’ meaning clown or fool as sailors found the birds easy to catch.

Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) by Ian

Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) by Ian

The difference between the sexes is subtle though the female is larger and they are easier to tell apart when seen together, like the pair in the third photo on a beach. Boobies and Gannets are very social and have sophisticated behaviours for display, territorial disputes and fishing so the ‘bobo’ label was a bit hasty.

Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) by Ian

Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) by Ian

All these photos were taken at East Diamond Islet, a remote cay on the eastern edge of the Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea Islands Territory, within Australia’s territorial boundaries but outside Queensland. This cay is typical of Masked Booby colonies, far offshore in tropical or sub-tropical waters, and the birds fish in deep water and are not normally seen close to the coast. The range of the Masked Booby is right around the globe and in Australasia there are colonies in northern Western Australia, northeastern Queensland, Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands and the New Zealand Kermadec Islands. The birds at the last three sites have black rather than yellow eyes and belong to a different race. Another race in the eastern Pacific with orange bills has recently been split off as a separate species the Nazca Booby.

Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) by Ian

Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) by Ian

Masked Boobies nest both on rocky cliffs and flat areas and the female in the fourth photo is sheltering a nestling and simultaneously expressing a verbal protest at being photographed. They usually lay two eggs, but the second is only an insurance policy and the first nestling to hatch will kill its sibling if it also hatches. Juvenile birds, fifth photo, look quite similar to the closely related Brown Booby but are distinguishable by having a complete white collar which in front forms a white rather than brown upper breast.

Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) by Ian

Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) by Ian

The sixth photo is of a male in flight and shows the black tail that distinguishes it from the white phase of the Red-footed Booby. Like all the gannets and other boobies, the Masked feeds by spectacular plunge-dives for fish, all members of the family have air sacs off the bronchi to absorb the impact – the original airbags. The Masked is the largest of the boobies (to 86cm/34in with a wing-span of 1.7m/5.5ft) and its maximum dive has been estimated at 100m/330ft though it’s smaller than the gannets. Gannets can reach 10m/33ft depth just from the dive and then swim down to 20-25m and usually take the target fish on the way back up.

Links:
Wednesday’s female Lesser Frigatebird
Nazca Booby
Brown Booby
Red-footed Booby

Here are a couple of points from earlier postings. Last week I had an email from Brett who reported the northern race of the Eastern Yellow Robin at St George’s Basin, 200km south of Sydney and well south of the documented range to the Hunter Valley. He – brett@brettdaviswebsitedesign.com.au – would be interested to hear from others who have recorded it south of its supposed range. A month ago (Yellow White-eye) I inquired about a plant with large fruits and pink flowers. The plant in question is calotrope (Calotropis procera) – thank you to the respondents – an introduced weed, but popular with native birds such as this Red-headed Honeyeater in Broome.

Best wishes,
Ian

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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:

The Sulidae – Gannets, Boobies Family has 10 species. The three Gannets are the Northern, Cape, and Australian. The seven Boobies are the Blue-footed and Red-footed, Peruvian, Nazca, Brown and the Masked Booby which Ian just wrote about. This family is part of the Suliformes Order which also includes the Frigatebirds, Cormorants, shags and the Anhingas, darters families.

Talking about the young one and the nest of the ground reminds me of:

If you come across a bird’s nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. (Deuteronomy 22:6 ESV)

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Eastern Yellow Robin

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Eastern Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria australis) by Ian

Eastern Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria australis) by Ian

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

Newsletter – 5/10/11

Here’s another familiar Australian species that hasn’t featured as Bird of the Week: the Eastern Yellow Robin. Familiar in mainland eastern Australia I should add, as it’s absent from Tasmania and it is replaced by the closely related Western Yellow Robin in southern Western Australia and southwestern South Australia. It’s familiar because its colourful and confiding and, with human contact, it gets quite tame in places such as picnic areas in parks.

Eastern Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria australis) by Ian

Eastern Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria australis) by Ian

The name Robin derives from the apparent similarity between the males of the several red-breasted Australian species (Rose, Pink, Flame, Scarlet and Red-capped Robins) and the European Robin, well known to the original white settlers. These not close related, however, as the European Robin is an Old World Flycatcher (family Muscicapidae) and the Australian, or strictly Australo-Papuan, Robins comprise their own family the Petroicidae. There are behavioural similarities too as a result of a similar lifestyle, and the Eastern Yellow Robin often watches patiently from conspicuous perches (including the trunks of trees) scanning the ground for invertebrate prey.
Eastern Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria australis) by Ian

Eastern Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria australis) by Ian

There are two races differing mainly in the colour of the rump. The nominate race, ranging from eastern South Australia to central New South Wales has an olive rump, while the northern race (chrysorrhoa) has a bright yellow rump, visible in the second photo, and is found from northern New South Wales to northeastern Queensland. Australo-Papuan Robins build beautiful cup-shaped nests and camouflage them by decorating the outside with bark, lichen and grasses, as in the third photo.

Links:
Recent non-avian additions to the website include photos of three species of Macropods (Kangaroo family) taken one evening during and after sunset at a waterhole on the recent trip to the Pilliga Forest :
Best wishes
Ian

Lee’s Addition:

What a neat little bird. Definitely different than what I think of a Robin.

If a bird’s nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young: But thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days. (Deuteronomy 22:6-7 KJV)

In the Birds of the World here you will find the two families – Petroicidae – Australian Robins and the Muscicapidae – Chats, Old World Flycatchers, plus Ian didn’t mention the Turdidae – Thrushes Family, which has our American Robin. Kind of confusing, isn’t it?

See all of Ian’s Bird of the Week articles.

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Ian’s Bird of the Week – Eastern Rosella

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Eastern Rosella (Platycercus eximius) by Ian

Eastern Rosella (Platycercus eximius) by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Eastern Rosella ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter ~ 05-04-11

In the search for the rare, elusive and/or beautiful it is easy to take the common, familiar and beautiful for granted. This is especially true when something has been used as an advertising icon and an egregious example of this is the Eastern Rosella, used as an icon in Australia for Rosella tomato sauce, soup and chutney, first image. No doubt the brilliant red head and breast of the Eastern Rosella played a part in its selection, but the Rosella company is a bit coy on the subject and mentions that Rose and Ella were the daughters of the original owners when in 1895 they bought the trademark from the makers of a eucalyptus oil cure for rheumatism.

Eastern Rosella (Platycercus eximius) by Ian

Eastern Rosella (Platycercus eximius) by Ian

When we set up camp in Barradine, New South Wales, for Easter, a pair of Eastern Rosellas were feeding on grass seed close to our camp-site and using the fence of the old Barradine race track
to reach the seed heads. The first photo shows the splendid male on the fence wire and the second photo shows the same bird on the grass. Rosellas are a bit shy usually keep their distance unless they have become used to people and I’ve had difficulty in photographing them, but this pair was fairly obliging.

Eastern Rosella (Platycercus eximius) by Ian

Eastern Rosella (Platycercus eximius) by Ian

The specific name eximius is Latin for ‘extraordinary, excellent, fine, superb’ so George Shaw, not George Bernard but keeper of the British Museum, was clearly impressed when he named it carefully in 1792. It takes Mother Nature to combine vivid primary colours without appearing garish, and I particularly like the luscious apple green of the rump, seen better in the second photo, an excellent field mark when you spot the birds flying away, as is often the case. The females are beautiful too, though not quite as bright as the males and the third photo shows the female of the pair walking along the top of the fence and the red colour of the head suffused with greenish-brown.

The Eastern Rosella is common within its relatively limited range comprising Victoria, Tasmania (where it is uncommon) most of New South Wales except the arid north-west, and extending into southeastern South Australia and southeastern Queensland. In the rest of coastal and central Queensland it is replaced by the closely related Pale-headed Rosella and the Northern Rosella, also a close relative, occurs in the Top End of the Northern Territory and northeastern Western Australia.

Eastern Rosella (Platycercus eximius) by Ian

Eastern Rosella (Platycercus eximius) by Ian

Rosella taxonomy is confused and there is uncertainty whether these three, or at least the two eastern one, should be treated as a single species as there is some cross-breeding between Eastern and Pale-headed where their ranges overlap in northern New South Wales and southeastern Queensland. At present they are retained as three species but are sometimes collectively called the white-cheeked Rosellas as distinct from the blue-cheeked Rosellas comprising the Crimson, Yellow and Adelaide Rosellas which are now generally regarded as a single species.

Links:
Pale-headed Rosella
Northern Rosella
Crimson Rosella
Yellow Rosella

Best wishes,
Ian

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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:

Wow! What a gorgeous bird of the Parrot – Psittacidae Family. Ian always seem to be in the right place at the right time to get many of his fantastic photos.

This bird reminds me of the coat that was made for Joseph, a coat of many colors. I wonder if the maker of the coat had looked at a Rosella or some other of creations very colorful birds to decide which colors to use.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. (Genesis 37:3 KJV)

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Ian’s Bird of the Week – Turquoise Parrot

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Turquoise Parrot (Neophema pulchella) by Ian

Turquoise Parrot (Neophema pulchella) by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Turquoise Parrot ~ by Ian Montgomery

Maybe I was tempting fate when last week I publicly declared my target species of the Pilliga trip to be the Turquoise Parrot, but fate was kind to me when I did the same thing with the Resplendent Quetzal on the eve of my visit to Costa Rica last year.

In truth I felt I needed a bit of help as I’ve been wanting to get reasonable photographs of these gorgeous birds since taking a very poor one of a female in the Warrumbungles in New South Wales in pre-digital days almost exactly eleven years ago. To that end I’d visited both the Warrumbungles and the Capertee Valley west of Sydney several times over the years, detoured via Warwick in Southern Queensland and camped the night in Chiltern in Northern Victoria, all places where this species has been reported.
Turquoise Parrot (Neophema pulchella) by Ian

Turquoise Parrot (Neophema pulchella) by Ian

We went to the Warrumbungles last Wednesday and we were just about to leave the second site – the Woolshed – recommended by a helpful but not optimistic ranger (‘they haven’t been seen for a month or two’) when Ivor, one of my two sharp-eyed companions, spotted a female on exactly the same powerlines as eleven years ago, but this time she flew off towards the creek without waiting to have her photo taken. A careful search of the creek revealed nothing even vaguely turquoise but eventually we found about 20 birds feeding on the grassy track on the far side.

I spent about 20 minutes sidling up to these birds as gradually as possible. The first two photos are of adult male birds, distinguishable by the reddish shouldered patches, which flew up into a shrub as I approached. The second male seems to be eyeing me quizzically as if wondering what I’m up to. The third photo is of a female feeding on the path.
Turquoise Parrot (Neophema pulchella) by Ian

Turquoise Parrot (Neophema pulchella) by Ian

Misión completa, as they said in Costa Rica, and thank you, fate.
Best wishes,
Ian
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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 gorgeous parrot. Wow!

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: (Matthew 7:7 KJV)

I know last week when Ian said he was off on an adventure to find that Turquoise Parrot, I prayed and asked that he find one. I was being a little selfish because I had never seen one and was trusting that his group would spot one. Whichever, fate or prayer, it is a choice we all make. I prefer the later.

The parrots are in the Psittacidae – Parrots Family of the Psittaciformes Order.

See all of Ian’s Bird of the Week articles.

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Ian’s Bird of the Week – Canary (Yellow) White-eye

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Canary (yellow) White-eye (Zosterops luteus) by Ian

Canary (yellow) White-eye (Zosterops luteus) by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Yellow White-eye ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter – 4/15/11

This week’s bird, the Yellow White-eye is a mangrove-dwelling relative of the widespread and familiar Silvereye. While the Silvereye is well-known in gardens and orchards of all the more densely populated areas of mainland Australia and Tasmania, the Yellow White-eye is confined to coastal areas of northern Western Australia, the Northern Territory and northwestern Queensland with one very isolated population near Ayr south of Townsville. So you have to go out of your way to find it, but it is quite common in suitable habitat within its range.

Canary (yellow) White-eye (Zosterops luteus luteus) by Ian

Canary (yellow) White-eye (Zosterops luteus luteus) by Ian

The first photo was taken at Buffalo Creek near Darwin and the second near Karumba on the southern end of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Incidentally, I’d be interested to hear from anyone who can identify the pink-flowered shrub with the White-eye-sized fruit (Yellow White-eyes are 11-12cm/4.3-4.7in). Birds from these regions are yellower than the Western Australian birds and some taxonomists split the species into two sub-species. These yellower northern and eastern birds belong to the nominate race luteus while the greener birds in Western Australia belong to the race balstoni.

The third photo was taken at Roebuck Bay near the Broome Bird Observatory and belongs to this greener race. The difference is subtle and I imagine you would need to compare birds directly to see the distinction. More striking is how well the plumage matches the colour of the leaves of the mangroves. Like Silvereyes, Yellow White-eyes are very lively and vocal so if they are around, they are not hard to find.

Canary (yellow) White-eye (Zosterops luteus balstoni) by Ian

Canary (yellow) White-eye (Zosterops luteus balstoni) by Ian

The apparently endless wet season has finally ended in North Queensland and this week we have all been enjoying lovely sunny days and moonlit nights. I’m making preparations to travel with friends to the Easter campout being organised by the Northern NSW group of Birds Australia in Baradine in the Pilliga Scrub/Forest between Coonabarabran and Narrabri. There are some interesting birds there (I have my sights set on Turquoise Parrot) and I hope I’ll be able to share some of them with you.

Best wishes,
Ian
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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

Thanks for introducing us to another interesting bird. The I.O.C. World Bird List has this bird as the Canary White-eye. This is another example of why the Scientific names are important. No matter what the bird is called, the scientific name assures that the same bird is being described.

I am trusting Ian will be able to capture through his lens that Turquoise Parrot. That sounds like another neat bird.

Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings, (Psalms 17:8 KJV)

After checking out Ian’s Zosteropidae Family photos, then check the Zosteropidae Family of the Passeriformes Order here.

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Little Egret

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Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) by Ian

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Little Egret ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter ~ 4/6/11

I’ve recently been updating the Heron and Egret galleries (Ardeidae) on the website and I noticed that the elegant Little Egret hadn’t yet featured as bird of the week. Its one of five species of egret resident in Australia and in breeding plumage it is easily distinguished by the only one to have a pair of head plumes – as in the first photo – in addition to breast and back plumes. The only other egrets globally with these head plumes are the closely related Snowy Egret of the Americas and the possibly conspecific Western Reef Egret, neither of which has been recorded in mainland Australia (there are records of the Western Reef Egret in the Cocos Islands).

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) by Ian

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) by Ian

In non-breeding plumage, it lacks plumes and is most easily separated from the similarly-sized Intermediate Egret by having a dark bill rather than a yellow or orange one. It’s best and worst field mark is the yellowish feet – best because this feature is shared only with Snowy and Western Reef Egrets and worst because you usually can’t see the colour of the feet in their normal habitat – wetlands – though visible in flight as in the second photo.

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) by Ian

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) by Ian

Little Egrets are versatile feeders and often dash frantically around in shallow water, Greenshank-like, in search of small vertebrates. They also feed by stirring up prey with their feet and will also take fish, as in the third photo. This one has just grabbed a fish and is rushing off to avoid the attention of the nearby Royal Spoonbills. Egrets and Spoonbills often try to steal each others food. For examples, have a look at http://www.birdway.com.au/threskiornithidae/royal_spoonbill/source/royal_spoonbill_c35816f.htm (spoonbill chasing spoonbill) and http://www.birdway.com.au/threskiornithidae/royal_spoonbill/source/royal_spoonbill_c35824f.htm (great egret chasing spoonbill).

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) by Ian

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) by Ian

In Australia, the Little Egret is commonest in northern Australia, but also occurs in smaller numbers in eastern and southeastern Australia, in Tasmania in winter and in central and western Australia when conditions are suitable. It also extends widely through Eurasia and Africa. The Australian race has yellow lores between the bill and the eye, but that of the nominate Eurasian race normally has blue-grey lores as in the fourth photo of one on a beach at the Cape of Good Hope. Globally, Little Egrets are quite variable and their taxonomy is still poorly understood.

Like other egrets, the global population of Little Egrets suffered severely in the late 19th century because of the fashion trade in plumes. It was this trade in plumes that lead to the establishment of the RSPB in 1889, a silver lining if there was one, and populations have recovered since.
Links:
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:

the stork, the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat. (Deuteronomy 14:18 NKJV)

The Egrets keep company with Heron and Bitterns in the Ardeidea Family of the large Pelecaniformes Order which includes the Pelicans, Ibises, Spoonbills, Hamerkop and Shoebill.

The Heron is one of the birds mentioned in the Bible, so is found in our Birds of the Bible – Heron page.

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

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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

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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!

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Ian’s Bird of the Week – Weebill

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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. 

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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)

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

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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
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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

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