January 2009

Happy New Year!  It is also Happy third year for us as residents of the area.  To celebrate completion of two years in the area I have put a brief reportsummarising these reports for the last two years on my core blog.

In January 2009, 85 species of birds have been recorded in the catchment area of the Gazette, including the species reported by an observer in Hoskinstown, and other observers in Widgiewa Road and the Molonglo valley.   We have also added 1 more species to the list: White-plumed Honeyeater

Waterbirds: Black Swan; Australasian Grebe; Little Pied Cormorant; Masked Lapwing; Black-fronted Dotterel; White-faced heron; White-necked Heron; Australian Wood Duck; Pacific Black Duck; Grey Teal, Chestnut Teal.

Birds of Prey: Brown Goshawk; Wedge-tailed Eagle; Brown Falcon; Peregrine Falcon; Nankeen kestrel.

Parrots and Relatives: Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo; Gang-gang Cockatoo, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo; Galah; Crimson Rosella; Eastern Rosella;

Kingfishers and other non-songbirds: Brown Quail; Common bronzewing; Crested Pigeon; Feral pigeon;  Southern Boobook;  Tawny Frogmouth; Dollarbird; Laughing Kookaburra; Sacred Kingfisher;; Brush Cuckoo; Shining Bronze-Cuckoo; Horsfield’s Bronze-Cuckoo; White-throated Needletail; Painted Button-quail.

Honeyeaters:  Brown-headed honeyeater; Eastern spinebill; Yellow‑faced honeyeater; White-eared Honeyeater; Noisy Miner; Red wattlebird; Noisy friarbird.

Flycatchers and similar species: Welcome swallow; Fairy Martin; Tree Martin; Grey fantail; Willie wagtail; Leaden flycatcher; Rufous whistler; Grey shrike thrush; Magpie-lark

Other, smaller birds: Black-faced cuckoo-shrike; White-throated gerygone; Western gerygone; Weebill; Striated thornbill; Brown thornbill; Buff-rumped thornbill; Yellow‑rumped thornbill; White-browed scrubwren; Superb Fairy-wren; Dusky woodswallow; White-throated treecreeper; Mistletoebird; Spotted pardalote; Striated pardalote; Silvereye; Richards Pipit; Skylark; Common blackbird; House sparrow: Diamond Firetail; Red-browed FinchEuropean goldfinch;  Common starling.

Other, larger birds: White-winged chough: Pied Currawong; Grey currawong: Grey butcherbird: Australian Magpie; Australian Raven; Little Raven

Bird of the Month

From the Greening Australia book “Bringing Birds Back.  Comments in brackets are by this author.  

Magpie-lark:  Grallina cyanoleuca

(Depending upon where in Australia you come from you might also know this species as: Peewee, Mudlark, Murray Magpie or Peewit!  Note that it isn’t a Magpie nor a lark but an aberrant flycatcher!)

Appearance:  Conspicuous black and white bird.  Male has white eyebrow and female has vertical black band through eye from crown down to chest.

Voice: Usually sung in duet by male and female ‘pee-wee, peewee, each opening and closing wings in rhythm.  Loud alarm call ‘ pee, pee, pee’

Habits: Pairs or loose groups.  Bold, tame, aggressive near nest (will attach own reflection in car mirrors).   Feeds mostly on ground, walking with back and forward head motion.

Food:  Insects, (other) invertebrates, small reptiles, frogs, birds, mammals.

Nest:  Deep bowl of mud lined with hair, grass, feathers.

Occurrence in Revegetation:  Found in 29% of sites.

(Garden Bird Survey: This Survey, run in the gardens of members of COG, records this bird as very common.  It is usually observed in nearlyall sites, and in every week of the year – albeit not every week in every site. )