Sorry for being slack posting the rest of the pictures from the Atherton Tablelands but I have been caught up with other things, not least of which being birding! I have found time now to write this post as my other half has taken off on a camping trip to the tablelands from which I have been excluded due to obligations with work. As I mentioned in my earlier posts, I didn’t really get a hold of the camera often and to be honest, most of my time there I spent with binoculars or notebook on hand.

Now with that qualification I present some of the images I managed to get! First is a particularly common bird endemic to the tablelands, the Grey-headed Robin (Heteromyias albispecularis). These robins can be seen all over the area often in plain sight near tracks and in local gardens.

Near Lake Barrine I snapped what I thought was a Lemon-bellied Flycatcher (Microeca flavigaster) chasing some insects from its position low in a shrub. Actually, after recently reading a post by Lloyd Nielsen regarding this species, I am revising my ID to a Grey Whistler (Pachycephala pectoralis). I’ve posted in a few places about it, we will see what the experts say!

The only other discernible images were these two taken of a female Victoria’s Riflebird (Ptilotis victoriae) and a Spotted Catbird (Ailuroedus melnotis) by Alex. Unusually, it was incredibly easy to actually see a Spotted Catbird on this trip. I have heard them in the past, but never seen them in numbers.

One other interesting shot I got was of this group of Helemted Guineafowl (Numida meleagris) near the road into Dinden National Park. Not sure whether these birds are feral or domestic, but there are known feral populations in the surrounding areas. Incidentally, it was on this road that I managed to finally get a good look at some Red-back Fairy-wrens (Malurus melanocephalus) in breeding plumage.

All in all, much fun was had on the trip and I can’t wait for the next one!

Alex took this shot of a male bird and it turned out to be the sharpest shot we got in natural light.

I tried the on camera flash but it did not produce great results. Just the same it is a clear shot of a male from this beautiful species!

If you are wondering about how to sex this species (subspecies macleayana), just look at the cheek. On the male it is the bright red pictured, while on the female it is that much paler brownish-green.

Hope you enjoyed these delightful little fig-parrots.

So I have officially returned from the Atherton Tablelands. I suppose I physically returned a few days ago but I only feel like I landed about now. It was a truly brilliant trip despite some minor setbacks such as Hasties Swamp being bone dry. Thankfully, the search for the Tooth-billed Bowerbird (Scenopoeetes dentirostris) was a hard fought success! Despite assurances of many active bowers in the week prior to departure, I failed to find a single active bower. It took us four hours to navigate our way around the Lake Eacham circuit track while we chased calling birds and stopped frequently to watch the many finds of the day. The first Tooth-billed Bowerbird was a single bird spotted high in the canopy by Alex amongst a number of calling Spotted Catbirds (Ailuroedus melanotis), but we only got a five second glimpse before it disappeared. I was convinced this was going to be the only bird we would see as we did not even hear one calling for the next two hours or so. It was only in the last half kilometre of the track when the dense undergrowth opened up a little did I finally hear that distinct call. Feeling I wasn’t going to get another opportunity, as I hadn’t so much as hear a single bird at the Chambers Wildlife Lodge either, I set off into the undergrowth to get a glimpse of this bird. As the calling got louder an louder I still couldn’t see the bird, before finally, just before the cloud of mosquitoes around my head finally got to me, I spotted the motionless bird ahead of me. Ashamedly, this is the best video I got. Thankfully, this also happened to be the only video where the audio was not obstructed by buzzing mosquitoes!

The lighting and positioning was not accommodating to photography but I attempted a couple of shots anyway. Here was the best shot I got of the bird.

Although many interesting birds were sighted on this trip, for the most part I was without camera. One of the trade offs of having Alex come up here with me was that I had to offload the camera to her. I did get a hold of it occasionally though and I did get some decent shots (as did Alex) which I will post in the coming days! The highlight of the photography on the trip would have to be the opportunity to capture some Double-eyed Fig-parrots (Cyclospsitta diophthalma) which were feeding on fruit and seemed completely unperturbed by our presence. The video is even more impressive! Hopefully I will get that up tomorrow. Enjoy!

I hope everyone had a great new year!