Birds I have been hearing around home and a very recent arrival.

by John Alexander

For the past few weeks I have been hearing Horsfield’s Bronze-cuckoos and Olive-backed Orioles which others have written about here. On Saturday night and again Sunday I was excited to hear the deep, mournful WOO HOO of the Powerful Owl - it sounded within a hundred metres of home but its loud call can carry for a kilometre or more. It’s a very large bird, 600-650mm and requires a large territory to support a breeding pair. It hunts at night and preys on possums and gliders as well as roosting birds such galahs, magpies, lorikeets and currawongs. It is sedentary and uncommon. The recent arrival is the White-browed Woodswallow - a large flock of 200+ birds arrived on Monday afternoon.

White-browed Woodswallows (fledgling at left with adult male), Muckleford State Forest, February 2011

They spend the winter in central Queensland and the Northern Territory and then in Spring the flocks move south to breed sometimes spilling over into Tasmania. They feed on insects mostly caught on the wing but sometimes gleaned from the ground or the bark of trees.They feed in high flying flocks with the birds flying in all directions, chirruping constantly. They are often seen in a flock with smaller numbers of Masked Woodswallows. They are common and highly nomadic.

May update: Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos

by John Alexander

On Sunday the 8th of May I had a visit from some Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos Calyptorhynchus funereus, also known as the Funereal Cockatoo. I could hear them coming by their far carrying squealing “why-lar”or “wee-lar” call. They seem to float in bouyant flight with slow and deep wing beats. They are a large black cockatoo, 55-65 cm long, with pale feather-margins, large yellow panels on the tail and small, yellow cheek patches. The male has a red eye-ring, while the female has a whitish bill and a grey eye-ring and a brighter yellow cheek patch.

Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos, Mia Mia Road Newstead, 8th May 2011

They are gregarious, seen mostly as pairs or in small parties, sometimes forming large flocks in winter months. Their habitat is diverse: coastal, inland and alpine; eucalypt forest, woodlands and rainforest. Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos are moderately common and seasonally nomadic or migratory with autumn-winter movements from high country to lowlands. They feed mostly on seeds of native trees and shrubs and are very attracted to plantations of Radiata Pine, also sometimes feeding on the grubs of wood borers and moths. They breed from November -February, nesting in a large tree hollow usually very high up and lay 2 eggs. Usually only one chick survives. Last year they made a number of appearances around home at Mia Mia Road.

Male (left) and female Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos, Mia Mia Road Newstead, 8th May 2011

Mia Mia bird life this week

by John Alexander

Some different birds have turned up around home this week. I had been seeing fleeting glimpses of what I thought may have been quail, then on Tuesday found them feeding behind my shed – Painted Button-quail. They find seeds and insects by scratching in the leaf litter. You can see where they have been by the little round scrapes they leave. On Tuesday I also saw a family of Varied Sitellas and some Grey Fantails. On Friday I had a White-necked Heron and Sacred Kingfisher on the dam and a pair of Golden Whistlers in the trees. There have been a pair of Diamond Firetails around for some time. But the highlight of the week was Monday evening. Returning from our walk, there on the fence was a Red-capped Robin. It’s the smallest and the most brightly coloured of the robins with its intense crimson cap and breast. Its call is a soft tick, repeated slowly. It forages by perching on fences and low branches then flies down to take insects and grubs. It is found across most of Australia in drier open-woodland, mallee, mulga and grassland. Established pairs may stay together, but otherwise these robins are largely solitary and sedentary or locally nomadic.While their status is common I have only seen them in the forest around here three times in twenty years.

Red-capped Robin. Photograph courtesy of Chris Tzaros.