Archive for category Honeyeaters

A strange bird and some interesting behaviour…

Feb 2

Today whilst wandering around the Esplanade I came across an unusual looking Common Myna (Sturnus tristis) with plenty of bare skin on its face. This is not the first Common Myna I have encountered with this feather loss problem, some even having no feathers on the head at all. Oddly, Cairns is the only place where I have observed mynas with any such problem. I have never seen this down south in the Sydney to Wollongong area. Is this a disease unique to the tropics?

Another peculiar birding encounter today was watching two Yellow Honeyeaters (Lichenostomus flavus) diving into a drainage channel for prey near the Cairns Central Swamp on Gatton St. I have never observed any honeyeater behaving like this before. Although the birds were not ‘diving’ as such, they were slamming into the water with some force. I didn’t see the suspected prey, I can’t even be sure that it was prey the birds were pursuing. Perhaps these birds were diving in to simply wet themselves in the heat of the day?

In other news, I plan to have the review of Birder’s Diary up in under a week!

Tags: birding, birds, common myna, disease, yellow honeyeater

Merry Christmas! Here are some birds…

Dec 24

Posted by Sebastian | 7 Comments

I haven’t done much birding this week in preparation for Christmas, but I did get away for about 6 hours while Alex was at work on Monday and walked the Cairns esplanade, mangroves, botanical gardens and Centenary Lakes. It was an OK day with well over 50 species sighted, but I have to admit, now that I have the new binoculars, I tend to use the camera less! I did manage a few photos though, so here goes…

On arriving at the Esplanade in the morning, I was greeted by a cacophony of twenty plus Eastern Curlews (Numenius madagascariensis) all calling incessantly. If anyone has heard the call of an Eastern Curlew, you would know this made for interesting listening! The birds had all congregated near the southern end as the tide was coming in.

There were the usual range of sandpipers, plovers and egrets on the esplanade which made for good viewing with the rising tide and morning light. Unusually, the number of Grey-tailed Tattlers (Tringa brevipes) and Terek Sandpipers (Xenus cinereus) seemed to outnumber the other more regular species (except, of course, the knots).

While it was a good day for sightings, this didn’t translate to a good day for photos. It was literally one of those days where nothing would sit still and all species seemed incredibly flighty. It was incredibly hot though so it may well have been my odour. On the edge of the mangroves, a pair of Varied Honeyeaters (Lichenostomus versicolor) were so little bothered by my presence that they landed on a branch not 20 centimetres above my head. I tried to frame one of the birds but it was so close I ended up cutting off its tail!

The botanic gardens and surrounds produced some interesting birds although my ID skills are severely lacking when it comes to identifying by sound. I need an audio field guide badly. The Metallic Starling (Aplonis metallica) colony on the Cook Highway east of the gardens seems overrun with juveniles at the moment, squabbling and playing with each other.

Near the freshwater lake at Centenary lakes this juvenile Nankeen Night-heron (Nycticorax caledonicus) flushed from a tree above me. This was the first juvenile I have seen of this species.

The usual suspects were around, with one Australian Brush Turkey (Alectura lathami) actually following me a quarter of the way down the Red Arrow track. This bird was one of eight seen on the relatively short Red Arrow walk.

Thankfully, the most interesting sighting of the day I did manage to photograph. This Pheasant Coucal (Centropus phasianinis) sat perched on a tree overlooking Cairns just off the Red Arrow lookout. While this is a fairly common species, I have not seen them anywhere except around cane fields before this. This bird treated me to a calling display while watching it. Its call is something of a pigeon cross cassowary. A deep wooping call. A definite treat!

The two other interesting, although not necessarily uncommon, sightings were a pair of Double-eyed Fig-parrots (Cyclopsitta diopthalma) and a number of White-throated Honeyeaters (Melithreptus albogularis) working a eucalyptus tree on the start of the Blue Arrow track.

This boxing day we are heading to Lake Eacham to stay at the Chambers Wildlife Lodge, so hopefully we will return with some decent photos of some new species! The word is that there are several active Tooth-billed Bowerbird (Scenopoeetes denitrostris) bowers currently on the property, so we will see!

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL! Hope you all have a great festive season and get loads of presents. Fingers crossed for expensive telephoto lenses all round. I will see you all next year!

Tags: birding, birds, Cairns, Esplanade

Centenary Lakes and the Cattana Wetlands

Dec 12

Posted by Sebastian | 6 Comments

Our day started at the freshwater lake at Centenary Lakes searching for that elusive Great-billed Heron (Ardea sumatrana). Not surprisingly as it was the middle of the day, we failed in that regard. We did get a better look at those Magpie Geese (Anseranas semipalmata) though and they didn’t mind our presence much so we managed to get within ten or so metres.

Unfortunately, as often is the case with disturbed habitats such as Centenary Lakes, ten metres just isn’t close enough for some. Half of the birds on the protected little nook took off before these two decided they were close enough.

Thankfully the rest of the day was a great improvement! We arrived at the Cattana Wetlands greeted at the first body of water next to the entrance by these two Black-winged Stilts (Himantopus himantopus) feeding in the low water.

A first for north Queensland for me! This has been our first trip to the wetlands since their opening a week ago and we were very impressed. These man-made wetlands are truly spectacular. After spotting some Comb-crested Jacanas (Metopidius gallinacea) jumping around on the lillies, we thought the area augured well for birding too.

This has to be the closest location to Cairns where you can observe this species. Coming here I was hoping to see my first Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) after reports at Cairns Birds, but it was not to be. Although the on-site bird hide at Cattana Wetlands proved fruitless, I did make some sightings of a couple of Chestnut-breasted Mannikins (Lonchura castaneothorax), Brown-backed Honeyeaters (Ramsayornis modestus), Little Pied (Phalacrocorax melanoleucos) and Pied (Phalacrocorax varius) Cormorants. These are all species I do not often see this close to Cairns.

One of the surprises and another first for me was this small group of Wandering Whistling-ducks (Dendrocygna arcuata).

More regular, but still nice, some Green Pygmy-geese (Nettapus pulchellus).

There was more waterfowl seen at Yorkeys Knob Golf Club where we stopped by afterwards, but I think I will leave that until tomorrow! The Cattana Wetlands development was a very nice surprise — not the sort of thing councils seem to spend money on these days. The improvements were all positive and overall it looks like it is heading towards becoming a well managed eco-tourism spot. Here are some random photos from the wetlands. We actually came across an Amethystine Python (Morelia amethistina) on the boardwalk but it was hidden away and I couldn’t get a good photo darn it!