Ian’s Bird of the Moment – Island Thrush

May 17, 2020 by Ian

When preparing editions of the Irregular Bird, I enjoy researching the natural history of the species in question. However, as anyone who goes on such a quest on the internet would know, this often proves to be a bit of a rabbit hole leading in unpredictable directions and taking up lots of time.

Such was the case this time round as I had decided, given our current travel-free situation, to take us on a trip to Christmas Island with photos of about ten of the most interesting species. This led me down endless rabbit holes and the weeks ticked by. One of these that I found particularly interesting, biogeographically and taxonomically, was the Island Thrush and, unlike most of the others, it hasn’t featured previously as an Irregular Bird, or Bird of the Week as it was in 2006.

This rather smart thrush is one of the typical thrushes comprising the genus Turdus, the members of which are widespread throughout Eurasia, Africa and the Americas and includes such well-known species as the Common Blackbird, the Song and Mistle Thrushes of Eurasia and the American Robin. The Island Thrush is about the same size as the Common Blackbird, to which it is closely related and is also a fine songster with a similar flutey song (listen to it here https://www.xeno-canto.org/204160).

This particular subspecies erythropleurus (meaning red-sided, or literally red-ribbed) is endemic to Christmas Island and was originally described as a full species Turdus erythropleurus by Sharpe in 1887. Subsequently it was found to be a race of the Island Thrush which is widespread but local through Southeast Asia from Sumatra and the Philippines and tropical Australasia and Oceania as far east as Samoa. Christmas Island is indicated by the brown arrow on the map below.

The first race of the species was described by Latham in 1801. He called it the Grey-headed Blackbird, Turdus poliocephalus (polios is Greek for grey). It occurred only on Norfolk Island (horizontal black arrow on the map) and is now extinct, while another ‘species’ the Vinous-tinted Blackbird Turdus vinitinctus, also now extinct, was described on Lord Howe Island (vertical black arrow). The Christmas Island race is the sole surviving one on Australia territory.

You may be struck by the different plumages of the various races, so it isn’t surprising that they were originally treated as different species. The colour plate above was created by the Danish artist Henrik Gronvold, and published in this book, below, an appendix to the Birds of Australia, by Gregory Mathews in 1928.

In fact, all the various populations of the Island Thrush differ greatly from each other in appearance. Below, stolen from Guy Dutson’s Birds of Melanesia, are two other races, one completely black (efatensis on Efate, an island of Vanuatu) and the other with a white head (albifrons on Erromango, another island of Vanuatu). In some race, the sexes are similar, in others they are different and the plumages of the juveniles are quite variable too. In fact the Island Thrush’s main claim to fame is that it is globally the most variable species of bird with nearly 50 subspecies. DNA studies show that the subspecies appear to be all closely related with one exception: the northernmost one on Taiwan, niveiceps, is considered a candidate for elevation to species rank.

The variability and wide range of the Island Thrush is paradoxical from the point of view of biogeography. On the one hand, varability and divergent subspecies indicates isolation with a lack of genetic flow among populations, i.e. the birds don’t move between islands. On the other hand, the wide range suggests that the Island Thrush is or was very good at getting from one place to another. This apparent contradiction is another mystery waiting to be solved.

John Gould also illustrated the Vinous-tinted Blackbird on Lord Howe. Like the Grey-headed nominate race of Norfolk Island, the sexes were similar so the browner bird in the plate presumably represents a juvenile. In the background are the two high mountains on Lord Howe, Mount LIdgbird (left) and the flat-topped Mount Gower. This species was quite common until a shipwreck introduced rats to the island in 1918 with fatal consequences for this ground-nesting bird.

Here are the two mountains on Lord Howe in 2013, photographed from the other side of the island from the John Gould illustration. So, we did sort of do a trip even if we ended up on Lord Howe instead of Christmas Island. I will prepare the rest of the photos for a trip to Christmas Island and try not to get too diverted by avian rabbit holes.

Spending a lot of time in isolation has given me the opportunity to work on the website not only adding birds and mammals from the trip to Brazil and Chile last year (about 120 species at last count), but also digging up neglected photos of other wildlife from earlier trips. If you are interested in checking these out, you can do so via the thumbnails on the Recently Added Photos page: http://www.birdway.com.au/recent_additions.php.

Greetings and stay safe,

Ian

—

Ian Montgomery,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Phone: 0411 602 737 +61-411 602 737
Preferred Email: ian@birdway.com.au

Bird Photos http://www.birdway.com.au/

Recorder Society http://www.nqrs.org.au

Lee’s Addition:

I am always grateful when I get the surprise Birds of the “Moment” from Ian. When he used to do the Bird of the Week, they were very regular. Now, I love being surprised by Ian. [He is becoming almost as “off-schedule” as I am.] At any rate, what a beautiful and neat looking Thrush. Thanks, Ian for sharing another avian wonder with us.

“Even the stork in the sky Knows her seasons; And the turtledove and the swift and the thrush Observe the time of their migration; But My people do not know The ordinance of the LORD.” (Jeremiah 8:7 NASB)

Birds of the Bible – Thrushes

Ian’s Birds of the Week/Moment

Avian And Attributes – Lord

February 7, 2018 by Lee

Lord Derby’s Parakeet (Psittacula derbiana) ©WikiC

“God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;” (Acts 17:24 KJV)

Avian and Attributes – Lord

LORD, n.
1. A master; a person possessing supreme power and authority; a ruler; a governor.
Man over man he made not lord.
But now I was the lord of this fair mansion.
2. A tyrant; an oppressive ruler.
3. A husband.
I oft in bitterness of soul deplores my absent daughter, and my dearer lord.
My lord also being old. Gen 18.
4. A baron; the proprietor of a manor; as the lord of the manor.
5. A nobleman; a title of honor in Great Britain
6. An honorary title bestowed on certain official characters; as lord advocate, lord chamberlain, lord chancellor, lord chief justice, &c.
7. In scripture, the Supreme Being; Jehovah. When Lord, in the Old Testament, is prints in capitals, it is the translation of JEHOVAH, and so might, with more propriety, be rendered. The word is applied to Christ, Psa 110. Col 3. and to the Holy Spirit, 2 Th 3. As a title of respect, it is applied to kings, Gen 40. 2 Sam 19. to princes and nobles, Gen 42. Dan 4. to a husband, Gen 18. to a prophet, 1 Ki 18. 2 Ki 2. and to a respectable person, Gen 24. Christ is called the Lord of glory, 1 Cor 2. and Lord of lords, Rev 19.
LORD, v.t. To invest with the dignity and privileges of a lord.
LORD, v.i. To domineer; to rule with arbitrary or despotic sway; sometimes followed by over, and sometimes by it, in the manner of a transitive verb.

“For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,” (1 Thessalonians 5:9 KJV)

Lord Derby’s Parakeet (Psittacula derbiana) by Wilhelma Zoo©WikiC

Lord Derby’s Parakeet (Psittacula derbiana), also known as Derbyan parakeet, is a monotypic parrot species, which is confined to small pocket of moist evergreen forest in the hills and mountains of the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, and adjoining parts of Tibet, Sichuan and Yunnan in China. The species suffers from cutting of old trees (important for nesting sites) and poaching for the illegal wildlife trade. The adult male and female are easily distinguished because they have different beak colours and slightly different plumage.
The name of this bird commemorates Edward Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby

Lord Howe Gerygone (Gerygone insularis) ©Drawing WikiC

Lord Howe Gerygone (Gerygone insularis) was a small bird in the family Acanthizidae, brown and greyish in color. Its head was brown apart from a pale grey eye-ring and a grey throat and chin, many parts of the animal varied to the colour of yellow, this being apparent in its bright yellow belly. It made its home in the canopies of the island’s forest until the early 20th century. The bird has had a variety of monikers: locally, it was known as the “rain-bird” due to its activity after the rains, or the “pop-goes-the-weasel”, due to the similarity of its song to the well-known tune. The bird was endemic to Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea.

Lord Howe Parakeet (Cyanoramphus subflavescens †) ©Drawing WikiC

Lord Howe Parakeet (Cyanoramphus subflavescens), also known as the Lord Howe red-fronted parakeet, is an extinct parrot endemic to Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea, part of New South Wales, Australia. It was described as full species by Tommaso Salvadori in 1891, but subsequently, it has been regarded as subspecies of the red-crowned parakeet.

Lord Howe Woodhen (Gallirallus sylvestris) by Ian

Lord Howe Woodhen (Gallirallus sylvestris), also known as the Lord Howe Island woodhen or Lord Howe (Island) rail, is a flightless bird of the rail family, (Rallidae). It is endemic to Lord Howe Island off the Australian coast.

More Avian and Attributes

Birds whose first name starts with “L”

Good News

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[Definitions from Webster’s Dictionary of American English (1828), unless noted. Bird info from Wikipedia plus.]

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23 KJV)

*** I am still tracking down those broken links. That is one reason the blogs haven’t come out as frequently as before. Stay tuned! ***

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Flesh-footed Shearwater

July 16, 2013 by Ian

Flesh-footed Shearwater (Puffinus carneipes) by Ian 1

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Flesh-footed Shearwater ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter – 7/16/13

One night when we were in our room on Lord Howe Island, we heard a scratching noise at the front door. On investigation this proved to be a juvenile Flesh-footed Shearwater from a nearby nesting colony attracted by the light. This one, first photo, is almost complete fledged with traces of fluffy down still apparent.

In the region of 20,000 to 40,000 pairs of Flesh-footed Shearwaters nest on Lord Howe. They dig nesting burrows in the sandy soil of the forest, mainly in the lowland area where the settlement is situated. Adults come ashore under cover of darkness to nest, change incubation shifts and feed their partners and young. They make their presence known by making loud crooning noises that sometimes sound like cats fighting but during daylight, they are silent and there is usually little sign of them on the island.

Flesh-footed Shearwater (Puffinus carneipes) by Ian 2

We were there at the end of the breeding season. When the juveniles are fledged, their cosseted existence comes to an abrupt end as the adults stop coming ashore and the young are abandoned to fend for themselves. Eventually, they wander out of their burrows and (mostly) make their way to the sea to start an independent pelagic life. Lord Howe is the only colony of this species on the east coast of Australia, but there are other colonies on islands off South Australia (one), Southwest Western Australia (several), New Zealand and St Paul Island in the South Atlantic.

The following day, we found another fledged juvenile when we went to Ned’s beach for a snorkel, photos 2 and 3. This one seemed to have failed to make it down the beach and was presumably waiting for darkness. The Flesh-footed is one of several rather similar, mainly dark shearwaters breeding in Australian waters and the third photo shows its two-toned bill – horn-coloured with a dark tip which is its most obvious field mark.

Flesh-footed Shearwater (Puffinus carneipes) by Ian 3

Outside the breeding season, Wedge-tailed Shearwaters are pelagic and range widely in both the Pacific and Indian Ocean. Birds from Lord Howe and New Zealand migrate north to the waters off South Korea and also appear off the coast of North America. The two in the fourth photo were off Wollongong, south of Sydney, in the deep water beyond the continental shelf. In this photo you can see the two-tone bills and the pink legs and feet.

Flesh-footed Shearwater (Puffinus carneipes) by Ian 4

Here, photo 5, for comparison is a Wedge-tailed Shearwater. Note the grey bill and longer, more pointed tail. The third common species in Australia is the Short-tailed, but, true to its name, the feet extend beyond the tip of the tail in flight.

Wedge-tailed Shearwater (Puffinus pacificus) by Ian

All these species are collectively called “muttonbirds” and were harvested in large numbers by early settlers for their eggs and oily, rather salty flesh. Clumsy on land and foolishly trusting, they were never rated as very bright. They are, however, masters of the air and sea and their annual movements around the oceans of the world ending up on tiny specks of land like Lord Howe are impressive feats of both navigation and endurance.

Best wishes
Ian

**************************************************
Ian Montgomery, Birdway Pty Ltd,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Tel 0411 602 737 ian@birdway.com.au
Bird Photos http://www.birdway.com.au/
Recorder Society http://www.nqrs.org.au

Lee’s Addition:

the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Psalms 8:8-9 ESV)

I am always amazed when I see this kind of snout on birds. What an amazing design. See: Formed By Him – Sea Birds That Drink Seawater

The family Procellariidae is a group of seabirds that comprises the fulmarine petrels, the gadfly petrels, the prions, and the shearwaters. This family is part of the bird order Procellariiformes (or tubenoses), which also includes the albatrosses, the storm-petrels, and the diving petrels.

The Flesh-footed Shearwater, Puffinus carneipes, is a small shearwater. Its plumage is black. It has pale pinkish feet, and a pale bill with a black tip. Together with the equally light-billed Pink-footed Shearwater, it forms the Hemipuffinus group, a superspecies which may or may not have an Atlantic relative in the Great Shearwater. These are large shearwaters which are among those that could be separated in the genus Ardenna.

It breeds in colonies, and has two main breeding areas: one in the South West Pacific Ocean includes Lord Howe Island (20,000 to 40,000 pairs) and northern New Zealand (50,000 to 100,000 pairs); the other is along the coast of Western Australia from Cape Leeuwin to the Recherche Archipelago. Another 600 pairs breed on St Paul Island in the Indian Ocean, as well in the Astola Island of Pakistan in the Arabian Sea. It occurs as a summer visitor in the North Pacific Ocean as far north as British Columbia. Flesh-footed shearwaters have been sighted in the Central-North Pacific, above the main Hawaiian Islands as well. (Wikipedia, with editing)

Ian’s Procellariidae Photos
Procellariidae – Petrels, Shearwaters Family
Flesh-footed Shearwater – Wikipedia
Ian’s Bird of the Week
Formed By Him – Sea Birds That Drink Seawater

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Double-banded Plover

June 2, 2013 by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Double-banded Plover ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter ~ 6-2-13

As well as the bird of the week, here is the airport of the year or maybe of the century. The photo shows the departure gate on Lord Howe Island, more like someone’s picket-fenced front garden: no crowds, escalators, queues or security, and plenty of opportunities for last-minute birdwatching. When I was there 20 years ago, I left the airport after checking-in to check out a Royal Spoonbill which had landed at the nearby wetland. This time there were plenty of waders on and near the runway and a pair of Woodhens in the bush in front of the picket fence.

Lord Howe Airport by Ian 1

The waders included out-of-season ones such as Pacific Golden Plovers, Bar-tailed Godwits and Ruddy Turnstones that had sensibly decided that spending the northern summer on Lord Howe was a much more attractive proposition that flying to Siberia to breed. There was also an in-season wader, the Double-banded Plover, in-season for reasons that I’ll explain in a moment.

Double-banded Plover (Charadrius bicinctus) by Ian 2

Waders in non-breeding and immature plumage are notoriously confusing, representing either a challenge or a headache to identify, depending on one’s attitude, and small plovers are no exception. What struck me in this case, however, was that these plovers seemed to be doing their utmost to help the waiting passengers with identification by persistently choosing to stand on the double black bands painted on the apron. The bird in the second photo is an immature Double-banded Plover – immatures have buffish faces as well as the diagnostic – but often faint traces – of the double bands on the breast.

Double-banded Plover (Charadrius bicinctus) by Ian 3

The bird in the third photo is an adult, still showing the upper blackish and lower chestnut breast bands characteristic of this species. It’s probably a male, as the bands are fairly wide and there are traces of a black upper edge to the white forehead.

Double-banded Plover (Charadrius bicinctus) by Ian 4

The bird in the fourth photo is an adult male in breeding plumage at the most southerly breeding location of this species on Enderby Island, one of the chain of sub-Antarctic Islands south of New Zealand. The Double-banded Plover is a New Zealand endemic – where it is called the Banded Dotterel – and widespread as a breeding species also on both of the main islands. The bird in the fifth photo is a breeding female with narrower and less intense bands and no black fringe to the white forehead.

Double-banded Plover (Charadrius bicinctus) Female by Ian 5

The bird in the sixth photo is an adult in non-breeding plumage with only faint breast bands and lacking the buffish background of the head of the juvenile. What is was doing in this condition on Enderby Island in the middle of the breeding season is anyone’s guess.

Double-banded Plover (Charadrius bicinctus) Adult in non-breeding plumage by Ian 6

And finally the bird in the seventh photo shows a better view of an immature bird and the buff head markings contrast clearly with the corresponding white markings of the non-breeding adult. This bird had just arrived on the east coast of Australia for the southern winter when it is a fairly common species in southeastern Australia, Tasmania, Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands. It is thought that the birds migrating to Australia for the winter are high-country breeders on the South Island: many others remain in New Zealand.

Double-banded Plover (Charadrius bicinctus) Immature by Ian 7

So, that’s why these birds are in-season in Australia in the southern winter. Any other waders here at that time of the year are either Australian residents (eg the somewhat similar Red-capped Plover) or northern hemisphere breeders that have stayed behind.

Best wishes
Ian

**************************************************
Ian Montgomery, Birdway Pty Ltd,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Tel 0411 602 737 ian@birdway.com.au
Check the latest website updates:
http://www.birdway.com.au/#updates

Lee’s Addition:

Bring forth every living thing that is with you of all flesh–birds and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the ground–that they may breed abundantly on the land and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth. (Genesis 8:17 AMP)

The Double-banded Plover is part of the Charadriidae – Plovers Family in the Charadriiformes Order.

The Double-banded Plover (Charadrius bicinctus), known as the Banded Dotterel in New Zealand, is a small (18 cm) wader in the plover family of birds. It lives in beaches, mud flats, grasslands and on bare ground. Two subspecies are recognised, the nominate Charadrius bicinctus bicinctus breeding in New Zealand and the Chatham Islands and Charadrius bicinctus exilis breeding in the Auckland Islands.

Adults in breeding plumage are white, with a dark greyish brown back, and have a distinctive brown breast, with a thinner band of black below the neck, and between the eyes and beak. Younger birds have no bands, and are often speckled brown on top, with less white parts.

They are fairly widespread in the south of New Zealand, but not often seen in the north. The nominate subspecies is partly migratory, breeding in New Zealand and the Chatham Islands and some wintering in Australia, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji, others staying in New Zealand. The Auckland Islands subspecies is sedentary but some birds move from their territories to the shore.

Their eggs are grey, speckled with black, making them well camouflaged against river stones and pebbles, which make up the main structure of their very simple nest. (Wikipedia with editing)

Double-banded Plover (Charadrius bicinctus) Nest and Eggs ©WikiC

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Providence Petrel

May 20, 2013 by Ian

Lord Howe Island by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Providence Petrel ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter ~ 5/20/13

Your collective moral support did it again, thank you very much, so here is the Providence Petrel the other really special bird species of Lord Howe Island. ‘Special’ in the sense that after its extermination on Norfolk Island by 1800, Lord Howe was its last remaining breeding site, saving it from extinction. Unlike Norfolk Island which lacks very high mountains, Lord Howe has two fairly inaccessible ones, Mount Lidgbird, on the left in the first photo, and the taller Mount Gower on the right and it is on the tops and slopes of these that the Providence Petrel breeds.

You need to be a mountaineer to climb Mount Lidgbird and young and very fit to climb Mount Gower. We took the easier option of going by boat to the base of Mount Gower where we got good views of many Petrels in flight preparing to land at their nesting burrows. They are winter breeders, returning to the island in March and laying eggs in May. They seem reluctant to actually land, so each afternoon the air around the two Mountains swarms with these birds like clouds of insects and it is a wonderful sight.

Very clumsy on the ground, they are fast and agile in the air so I was happy to get a few reasonable shots given the choppy conditions without falling overboard. The first Petrel photo shows the characteristic overall dark bird (it looks lighter than usual against Mount Gower) with the characteristic white patches on the primary wing feathers and under wing coverts that distinguishes it from most other similar petrels. The second petrel shot, shows the upper wings – these are all dark and lack the white shafts to the primaries that distinguish the similar Kermadec Petrel. Other field marks are the scaly white feathers on the face and the dark neck and upper breast.

The third petrel photo shows a more characteristic dorsal shot with the bird silhouetted against the sky and shows it long slender wings. The birds average 40cm/16 in in length with a wingspan of about 1 m/3 ft 3 in. After breeding, the disperse to the North Pacific. For food, they dive into the water for crustaceans, squid and small fish.

Providence Petrel (Pterodroma solandri) by Ian

The Lord Howe population is estimated at about 30,000 pairs. Feral pigs were eliminated as part of the Woodhen recovery project and the Petrels are recolonising the lower slopes of the mountains. They were rediscovered on Phillip Island close to Norfolk Island in 1985 and the current population there is less than 100 pairs. The elimination from Norfolk Island took place between 1790 and 1800 with perhaps one million adults and young being harvested in the period 1790-1793.

Best wishes
Ian

Lee’s Addition:

Let them give glory unto the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands. (Isaiah 42:12 KJV)

Ian has shared another of his birdwatching adventures with us. It’s good to hear that the Petrels there are making a comeback.

Petrels belong to the Procellaridae Family. The family consists of Petrels, Shearwaters, Fulmars, and Prions,

“The Providence Petrel (Pterodroma solandri) is a species that burrows in one location; isolated Lord Howe Island, some 800km from the Australian mainland in the Tasman Sea.

Of roughly pigeon like proportions (40cm), the bird was once also numerous on Norfolk Island (to Australia). However, its population here was consumed by starving epicurean transportees, sent to Norfolk Island as way of punishment. Nonetheless it numbers some 100,000 on Lord Howe. Graceful and supple in flight, the Providence Petrel has a cumbersome propensity on the ground, making it vulnerable from attack by predators.

Despite its reasonably copious strength of numbers, the Providence Petrel is deemed to be in a precarious disposition because its breeding is confined to two mountain tops and one tiny islet, and is therefore at great risk from a catastrophe.

This species is classified as vulnerable. Main causes of death are predation by the endangered Lord Howe Rail and flooding of burrows. Other dangers include rat predation and drowning in longline fishing gear. The current population is estimated at 64,000.

The scientific name of this species was given in honour of the Swedish botanist Daniel Solander, Solander’s Petrel being an alternative common name.” (Information from Wikipedia)

See:

Ian’s Petrel Photos

Procellariidae – Petrels, Shearwaters Family

Providence Petrel – Wikipedia

Ian’s Bird of the Week

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Lord Howe Woodhen

May 12, 2013 by Ian

Lord Howe Woodhen (Gallirallus sylvestris) by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Lord Howe Woodhen ~ By Ian Montgomery

Newsletter ~ 5/11/13

My sister Gillian and I arrived for a week’s visit to Lord Howe Island this morning. I haven’t been here since a visit with my mother on her last trip to Australia in 1992. That was in pre-digital photography days, so I am of course keen to photograph some of the local specialties. Perhaps at the top of the list is the famous flightless Lord Howe Woodhen, saved from probably extinction by a captive breeding program in the late 1970s and early 1980s. We had barely finished unpacking when a pair came past our front door to welcome us to the island.

The bird in the first photo has, like many of the population of 200-300 birds, coloured legs bands to assist in monitoring the population. Its partner, second photo, lacked bands and is naturally more photogenic from a wildlife viewpoint, so I concentrated my efforts on it.

Lord Howe Woodhen (Gallirallus sylvestris) by Ian

In the gloom of the Kentia Palm forest that covers much of the lowland of the island, the birds look greyish and are quite difficult to see. When they move into the sunlight, like the one in the third photo that has found fruit from the tree outside our room, the warm chestnut colour of the plumage becomes apparent.

Lord Howe Woodhen (Gallirallus sylvestris) by Ian

Woodhens form permanent pair bonds and defend their territories which are several hectares in size. Both these birds are adult, recognisable by their red eyes. With a length of 36 cm/14 in these are largish rails, bigger than the related Buff-banded Rail which is also present on the island (and has also wandered past our room).

Lord Howe Woodhen (Gallirallus sylvestris) by Ian

Being flightless, tame and good to eat the population declined seriously after the island was settled and by the 1970s only a few survived on the fairly inaccessible tops of the two tall mountains, Mounts Gower and Lidgbird when some of the birds were captured and bred in a protected enclosure in the lowland area. A fellow postgraduate student of mine at Sydney University in the 1970s, Ben Miller, played a major role in the project. You will be able to read all about it in a book, The Woodhen, due for publication next month by CSIRO Publishing and written by Clifford Frith. See http://www.publish.csiro.au/pid/7011.htm. Cliff is also a friend of mine, so I feel quite a strong connection to the Woodhen and am happy to now be able to offer it to you and include photos of it on my website.

Next target is the Providence Petrel, so wish me luck. After its extinction on Norfolk Island – where it was regarded as ‘Provident’ – it survived only on Lord Howe, though a small colony has recently become re-established on Phillip Island off Norfolk.

Best wishes
Ian

Lee’s Addition:

… how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! (Luke 13:34b KJV)

Never heard of a Woodhen before. Thanks, Ian, for introducing us to another one of the Lord’s creations. According to my list from IOC, there are only three Woodhens; the Lord Howe, Samoan and Makira Woodhens (The last two seem to be called woodhens only by IOC). They are in the Rallidae – Rails, Crakes & Coots Family. One other bird sometimes refered to as a Woodhen is the Weka.

“The Lord Howe Woodhen (Gallirallus sylvestris) also known as the Lord Howe Island Woodhen or Lord Howe (Island) Rail, is a flightless bird of the rail family (Rallidae). It is endemic to Lord Howe Island off the Australian coast. It is a small olive-brown bird, with a short tail and a down-curved bill. The Lord Howe Island Rail lives in sub-tropical forests, feeding on earthworms, crustaceans, fruit, and taking the eggs of shearwaters and petrels.

Woodhens mate for life and are usually encountered in pairs. They are territorial and will appear from the forest’s understory to investigate the source of any unusual noise. A mated pair will defend an area of approximately 3 hectares, with offspring being expelled from this area once grown. The population of birds is thus restricted by the amount of available territory.

Today there are about 250 birds, which may be the optimal population size for the island. (Wikipedia with editing)

See:

Ian’s Rails and Allies

Rallidae – Rails, Crakes & Coots Family

Lord Howe Woodhen – Wikipedia

Woodhen (Weka) – Wikipedia

Lee's Birdwatching Adventures Plus

Birdwatching from a Christian Perspective

Tag Archives: Lord Howe Island

Ian’s Bird of the Moment – Island Thrush

Ian’s Birds of the Week/Moment

Avian And Attributes – Lord

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Flesh-footed Shearwater

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Double-banded Plover

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Providence Petrel

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Lord Howe Woodhen

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