Sunbird shows off blue glory

Sunny morning and sudden drop in overnight temperature made for a fitting Tyto appearance today by Mr Cool, male Olive-backed Sunbird (Nectarinia jugularis) in all his blue gorget glory. Also fitting, his perching on pandanus, as an old nest dangles from a nearby pandanus.

Also out in force - particularly vocal - today, White-browed Robins (Poecilodryas superciliosa). Another four spotted during the morning.

Other recent Tyto sightings include notably blue Varied Triller (Lalage leucomela). The species usually looks black and white. But early morn light would seem to have provided a glimpse of the male as seen by another bird. Most birds see in a much wider range of colour than us. Notice that the effect is not merely an unwanted blue cast over the image.

Nothing blue about Spangled Drongo (Dicrurus bracteatus), again in bright morning light. Low- angled light has brought out the eye colour, which tends to be lost and quickly dulls as the sun climbs.

Young Brush Cuckoo (Cacomantis variolosus) will soon lose attractive brown tones and turn duller grey.

White-gaped Honeyeater (Lichenostomus unicolor) reveals strong grey eye colour and the gape that inspired its name, though it often looks more creamy yellow than white.

And a touch of violence from a recent morning. Typical brief flurry from Comb-crested Jacanas (Irediparra gallinacea) competing for territory on the main lagoon. Waterboarding comes to mind as descriptive of the technique. Jump upon and submerge the foe. Oddly, the bout doesn't always go to the one most wetted. I suspect one bird loses interest and simply moves on. Pity people couldn't do likewise!

Night walk tracks plenty of Nightjars

Plenty of Large-tailed Nightjar (Caprimulgus macrurus) sightings during 90-minute walk in Tyto last night.

Even better than birds in air and on low branches, one nightjar allowed extremely close crawl into its space at edge of track. Full frame image.

Elsewhere in Tyto yesterday, good numbers on honeyeaters, including White-gaped Honeyeater (Lichenostomus unicolor). Picture  from an  earlier outing.

As also this Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia) pictured flying by the Tyto lookout recently.

And active around the hide, Australian Reed-Warbler (Acrocephalus australis). Three of this species seen yesterday contributed to my tally of 66 species for the morning, with a further five species added later. Not bad for a 'droughty' Wet.

Run of barred luck

Tootled off to Wallaman Falls today looking for better image of Barred Cuckoo-shrike (Coracina lineata). Didn't see any and then rain set in, so we're stuck with earlier effort. 

Similar story with young Dollarbird (Eurystomus orientalis) in Tyto.

Better luck with this White-gaped Honeyeater (Lichenostomus unicolor) - in Tyto before the Wet really set in.
Click pix to enlarge  

Dusky beauty heads honeyeater handful

Dusky Honeyeater (Myzomela obscura) in Tyto Wetlands yesterday (losing out to Brown and Yellow HEs in fight for nearby flowering bottlebrush.

Brown Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta) on the bottlebrush.

Yellow Honeyeater ready for action (Lichenostomus flavus)

Earlier, White-throated Honeyeater (Melithreptus albogularis) also on bottlebrush.

And White-gaped Honeyeater (Lichenostomus unicolor) not so sweet-loving as it collects Cheese Tree seeds. 
Click pix to enlarge

Helpful handful of honeyeaters

Bird counts in Tyto showing a slow rise, with a handful of honeyeater species helping boost numbers. Hard to miss noisy groups of Yellow Honeyeaters (Lichenostomus flavus).

Also found in small bands at times and good guides to pythons, White-gaped Honeyeater (Lichenostomus unicolor).

Building up after almost vanishing from the wetlands after Yasi, Brown Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta).
Click pix to enlarge

Sweet times with honeyeaters

Killed bit of time early today while waiting for birding party (so much more peaceful than boarding party). So, flashed away at a few honeyeaters in the carpark callistemons. White-gaped Honeyeater (Lichenostomus unicolor) heads the list, with gape, as usual, more yellow than white.

Yellow Honeyeater (Lichenostomus flavus) busy as ever, and, as ever, challenging every effort to get the plumage colours right. Pictures seldom match the myriad tones of yellow.

White-throated Honeyeater (Melithreptus albogularis) in brief appearance. Species spends more time in suburbia than ever in the Tyto precinct proper.

Ever-present, Brown Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta). Rare moment of quiet. This bird held over from an earlier outing.

And another tossed in from earlier shoot: Macleay's Honeyeater (Xanthotis macleayanus) chasing meatier morsels. 

Honeyeaters yellow and grey

Never many problems identifying Yellow Honeyeaters (Lichenostomus flavus). They're just so, well, very yellow, noisy and busy. And, as with quite a few honeyeters, grey-eyed.

They seldom sit still, and prefer to forage away from in open sunlight. Had hopes for above picture, on tulip tree, but image too soft.

White-gaped Honeyeaters (Lichenostomus unicolor) share eye colour and much else with Yellows: side by side in bird lists, on same branch in one field guide, share habitat in north Queensland. Above bird kept returning to old Shining Flycatcher nest and eating bits of lining.

Bovine bonus: Cattle Egret and adopted family watch me seeking Double-barred Finches yesterday (post upcoming).

Honeyeaters enjoy varied diet

Honeyeaters enjoy a varied diet, though not quite so wide-ranging as this series might indicate. Starting with Brown Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta) tucking into red bottlebrush at the Tyto carpark.

Next, Macleay's Honeyeater (Xanthotis macleayanus) dipping into rotting bananas set out in and around a pig trap.

Last, White-gaped Honeyeater (Lichenostomus unicolor) appears to be seeking an end to iron deficiency. Perhaps the bananas are too sweet.

Honeyeater sees, seizes sawfly

Yellow Honeyeater (Lichenostomus flavus) nabs a Paperbark Sawfly (Lophyrotoma zonalis) outside the Tyto hide today (click pic to enlarge). Don't often capture honeyeaters in such an insectivorous moment, but no surprise about the prey, considering the hide is ringed by three Melaleucas.

One honeyeater feeding leads to another. White-gaped Honeyeater (Lichenostomus unicolor) comes up with a bill full of wild passionfruit flesh. Plenty of birds and insects are drawn to the passionfruit flowers. Can't recall seeing birds previously showing fondness for the flesh. The dwarf fruit has a thin, soft skin, and is full of smallish black seeds.

Also with thin, soft skin - and not long for this world - was an unidentified caterpillar, plucked from a part-flooded grass track today by this immature female Magpie Lark (Grallina cyanoleuca). Young Magpie Larks can be quite trusting. For several minutes I trailed close behind as this bird grabbed small morsels. Didn't do so well in encouraging it to stand still and eat slowly! 

Elsewhere in the wetlands today (and two days back), came upon three Black Bitterns, two at one end of the lagoon system, the other at a favourite (for the bird) shaded spot by a culvert outflow. All three, as previously, headed for distant trees and vanished into them.

As did a Collared Sparrowhawk, disturbed in its flight across a corner of the lagoon by a Masked Lapwing, which thereby put paid to any hopes I had of getting the small raptor in flight. The bird has been a presence more felt than seen for about three weeks. It's almost got me shouting: 'Come on out! I know you're in there.' But I'm sure it knows a bluff when it hears one!

Finally, after so much feeding, a Bar-shouldered Dove (Geopelia humeralis) poses perfectly as an end piece to the post!  

Sick of flood, back to birds

Ingham still cut off. Town cleanup awaits another metre drop in Herbert River. But at caravan park we're better off with standing water shelving across back third of grounds. All facilities came through more or  less intact and we ripped into blast cleaning in yesterday's sunshine. More heavy rain forecast for three days should not slow river's fall.

Tyto's out of question, but it's time to get back to the birds, if only to show slightly improved processing. (Nothing like rainy days to force one to knuckle down and try more time-consuming tasks.) 

First, Brown Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta). Bird's not bad. Too much tree, and try as I might, couldn't find way to clone the problems away.  The attractive markings are rather at odds with the bird's Latin name, aren't they?

Here's a White-gaped Honeyeater (Lichenostomus unicolor), previously unposted in this blog, but put up on Birding-Oz.  The gape seldom phtographs as true white, usually offering a strong yellow tinge. But the Latin is truer to the plumage.

Time to get back to the cleanup. More later.

Who gives a fig for colour?

Green, Yellow, Banana. All colourful names. But no more for the male Australasian Figbird (Sphecotheres vielloti), above thinking about swallowing another of the dry, tasteless (to us humans) fruits it loves - and few other birds show great fondness for.

Figbirds came in two races, S. vielloti and S. flaviventris, till the split was ended with a revised list (Christidis & Boles) early this year. The male birds will continue to show big differences: northern yellows grading through to southern greens.

Closely related to figbirds (usually on the same page in field guides), the Olive-backed Orioles (Oriolus sagittatus) are less obvious and seldom so brightly plumaged as the above juvenile bird. Much of the contrasting colour on the back will disappear with adult plumage.

So much for colour. What about sounds? I've often been struck by what appears in honeyeaters to be more curiosity about strange noises than other birds show. This White-gaped Honeyeater today seemed to react to the Canon's clattering shutter.

I'd been standing in long grass chasing Tawny Grassbirds when the White-gaped darted in and struck several 'listening' poses as the camera clacked away. Honeyeaters are also among the few birds ever to react at my otherwise ineffectual 'pishing'.

While on the subject of theories, limited searches of possible Little Bittern daytime hideouts have revealed absolutely nothing resembling the apparently shaped space found last month at the base of a small tree springing from Scleria (Razor Grass). Guess it was just a natural artifact.

Finally, the issue of huge fish and small Azure Kingfishers nestlings. First readings suggest the birds simply truck the fish in. If the fish is eaten, fine. If not, it can sit and rot in the darkness. Along with bones, other unwanted morsels, excreta, and anything that may have crawled in.

Can't wait till nestlings have fledged and I get a chance to sniff the delicate odour of Azure domestica! :-(

Young ones out and about

Plenty of young birds about the wetlands and more to come as serial nesters such as Willie Wagtails and Crimson Finches keep at it. White-gaped Honeyeater (Lichenostomus unicolor) juvenile popped up unexpectedly yesterday.

Bit of a surprise since the species' (aka River Honeyeater) numbers in Tyto dropped away as the creeks dried up. However, one or two birds have shown up in plantings by the carpark. They may have nested in a home garden.

No way of knowing where or what nest this Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx basalis) sprang from. The young bird was sitting solo on a footbridge handrail. Lack of colour on back and no dark stripe through eye makes ID a tad dodgy. But the plainness of young Horsfield's can be a telling point.

No problems with ID-ing juvenile Brown Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta). Browns and Yellow Honeyeaters dominate the woodlands. The yellow gape at the base of the bill tells of the bird's immaturity. The typical long honeyeater tongue is a bonus.

This oddly coloured Grey Whistler (Pachycephala simplex) arrived at the rainforest pool today in company with two others. But they didn't seem to be getting along. The small rufous 'ear patch' may perhaps mark the bird as a juvenile. I can't recall seeing anything similar and the guide books haven't helped.

Also at the rainforest pool today, a brief flurry of action after a long period of nothing larger than mozzies in the air. Silvereyes, White-browed Robins, Shining Flycatchers, Large-billed Gerygones, Little Shrike-Thrushes and Brush Cuckoos showed up noisily. Five minutes later, all quiet.

In back of it all, an Azure Kingfisher sat carrying a huge fish (about twice the size of that in previous post). But the bird would not cross to the nest burrow. So I quit my 'hiding' place. The question is: how do the nestlings cope with a (relatively) gigantic fish? I have no idea, so I'll chase it up.