Today’s post features a relatively common local species, the White-fronted Chat.
There are five species of Australian chats, with recent research demonstrating an evolutionary relationship with the honeyeaters. The White-fronted Chat is the only chat we are likely to observe locally, although another species, the Crimson Chat, sometimes appears as a vagrant after bumper breeding seasons inland, their usual haunt.
Writing this note I was reflecting on what appears to have been something of a decline in numbers of the White-fronted Chat over the past decade. It is a bird of the plains country where it can be found around the margins of wetlands (especially lignum wetlands) and in areas of rough grassland, both native and exotic. It will often feed in open areas, including crops and pasture but for breeding requires small shrubs or tussocks, so tends to favour areas with these features for much of the year.
The images below are of a small flock at Picnic Point (Cairn Curran Reservoir). The birds were feeding along the shoreline on insects, possibly brine flies (Fam: Ephydridae), that were congregating in large numbers on algae and associated detritus. You can see the flies in a number of images below, particularly image VI.
The sexes are quite different and while the first image is clearly an adult male, the subsequent images, apart from the last, appear to be scruffy immature males. The last image is an adult female, enjoying the dying rays of sunshine on some gibber-like terrain. This is the type of habitat where on a grander scale you might encounter the Gibberbird Ashbyia lovensis, an unusual endemic Australian chat that is restricted to the arid interior.
White-fronted Chat (male), Picnic Point, 5th May 2024
Foraging for brine flies
II
III
IV
V
VI
White-fronted Chat (female)