Why are the birds not coming back to Tenterfield?

For the passed few years I have noticed a steady influx in the return of certain species to Tenterfield but at the same time these same species are not staying here any more. Some species have opted to only raise a family in Tenterfield and then move on again, whereas others have taken up residency here albeit are tiny numbers. The large majority of birds that left Tenterfield became migratory species, only rarely coming back to Tenterfield and only for food.

Tenterfield has somewhat remained the same over the years and although only a small handful of trees have been removed for various reasons (including via floods) it does not make sense to me that the birds would not become residents again even with the return of the rain. Something is missing in this scenerio that I am overlooking as to why the birds are not moving back to Tenterfield.

The majority of the species are attracted to the Tenterfield Creek whether to nest near the water or to use it somehow. Its strange but I've never actually seen any birds drink out of the Tenterfield Creek. They seem to prefer to drink from puddles away from the creek itself.

Birds follow food sources, whether it be natural or offerings by humans. Birds prefer natural food over artificial sources in this area. They only eat human offerings because of the lack of their own food in the area. But this is strange because no great loss of flora has been happening in the area since 2001. Plant and tree seeds are still being eaten by birds, nectar is still available in the area - otherwise the rosellas (Eastern) would've left by now. Insects are in abundance right now; and aquatic life is flourishing as the White-faced Heron was seen a few days ago with a male, so she may decide to breed again - twice in 12 months.
Even birds of prey have been on the increase, hence being sighted or their scats found - so there is not much to really stress birds out in the way of a lack of food right now. But I have noticed the King Parrots have not come back yet - even though they may be breeding right now - they should be back by now.

Maybe trying to solve the mystery of why King Parrots left in the first place (some years back) might help to solve the mystery of why many other bird species left. Okay, let's find out what King Parrots eat...
Firstly they eat seeds, and lots of them. In the areas I've observed them eat the seeds of Pine Trees, Oak trees, Wattle trees, and grass seeds. Doing a bit more research on the net, King Parrots also eat fruit, berries, Eucalyptus nuts and buds, wild tobacco, honey, and insects.

If this is what King Parrots depend upon to survive it might explain why the majority of this species left town, as there is not much of anything available in between early Autumn and early Spring. All the gum and pine trees go to seed in Summer; Wattles go to seed from October to December; Oaks in Summer; there are no native fruit or berries in the area - all blackberry bushes have been poisoned by the Council; no wild tobacco in the area; which leaves honey and insects. There are Banksias in the area but I'm not sure when they go to flower. Native bees are in such small numbers that any honey is simply not enough for one King Parrot let alone a lot of them. Insects have been numerous - not prolific - since the rains returned in October 2012. I doubt it has anything to do with this because over a period of time these food sources (except the Blackberries) have remained constant and in the same quantity of plants.

In the last few years the temperature has fluxuated dramatically. We have had quite a few warm to hot winter seasons but that seems to be going back to normal now. I really think it has something to do with the weather than their actual food supply that not only made these birds leave but to also not come back.

Scaly-breasted Lorikeet Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus

Scaly-breasted Lorikeets. Used with permission by and screenshot of
  video taken 2010 by auswolf350. Copyright auswolf350.

Out of nowhere, four nights ago at 12:15AM, I heard the sounds of a flock of parrots fly over my roof top heading toward MT. McKenzie. It was pitch black outside with no moon. At first they sounded like bats but getting closer toward me I could tell they were parrots of some sort. (See the first video below for the actual recording of their flight calls). I've since identified them, by sound only, as Scaly-breasted Lorikeets. I have also visually confirmed them to be birds and not bats. Originally I estimated there were no more than 40 birds in the area.


If you cannot hear anything in this video above, turn your speakers up A LOT. Apparently their calls are very high pitched in this video.
Around 6:45PM last night I began walking toward where the birds had previously been roosting so I could be there on time as the birds came in to roost. When I got there, sure enough, the birds started coming in to roost. They began coming in to roost not as a flock but as small family groups that consisted of 12-18 individual birds.

Where the birds first roosted for the night.

However, I began to notice more and more family groups coming in to roost. They were all coming from the west of Tenterfield. I could not get close enough to the trees that some of the family groups had landed in, but it was a small stand of about 8-12 mature gum trees.

On my way home from shopping I walked the normal way home and heard a heck of a commotion coming from a small stand of trees in the Tenterfield Showgrounds. To my amazement there must have been somewhere between 200 and 400 Scaly-breasted Lorikeets roosting in the trees. The more I walked toward home the more family groups I was seeing coming in to roost.


In this video above the Scaly-breasted Lorikeets were in 6-8 of the tallest trees in the Tenterfield Showground. It was taken yesterday around 7:30PM.
There were so many birds of this species I simply could not count them. They flew at speeds more than 50 KMs per hour, as the moment I spotted them flying they were gone. They were travelling too fast for me to even record them on video.

Special thanks to auswolf350 for permitting me to use his video and screenshot to add images of these birds to this post.

Rufous Songlark information

I am not entirely convinced that the birds I have observed in the immediate area are indeed Rufous Songlarks. THEY MIGHT BE THOUGH AND STARTING TO THINK THEY ARE RUFOUS SONGLARKS. I have identified these birds entirely by their song alone. See here for the original recording which I identified these birds from. From behind and in flight these birds look like a female House Sparrow. But a side on and front on view, the ones I have seen up close anyway, look different to the image on the birdsinbackyards website. They have a more rusty orange-brown chest or side colouring but have the typical House Sparrow coloured wings.

Currently they are about the size of a White-naped Honeyeater. They all appear to be the same size right now, which tells me they are juveniles and are still growing, and more than likely they recently fledged and left their parents' company. Yesterday I saw 4 of them chasing each other around the bushes.

These little birds can easily be mistaken for House Sparrows until they open their mouths and sing. They eat insects from just about every bush and tree in the area, and wherever insects may be hiding elsewhere. I have seen an individual come underneath Carol's back verandah and do a sweep of the underside of the roof for spiders and other insects. It's funny to watch as it looks like the bird is trapped and trying to escape through an impenetrable roof.

There are 2 plants in which these birds frequent the most, Carol's Hydrangeas and her butterfly bush. The butterfly bush is entered from an open space at the bottom and then the bird/s move their way up the stems to the outermost leaves in search of insects. Once the bird/s reach the outermost leaves they fly out of the bush into a taller bush or tree. The butterfly bush is the most visited plant in Carol's garden by these birds. The Rufous Songlarks, if undisturbed, will spend up to 15 minutes each visit feeding on insects in the butterfly bush. The Hydrangeas, which are currently in flower, are visited by these birds by them landing close to a clump of flowers, and then the insects are just picked off the flowers or bush itself. There are obviously not many insects on the Hydrangeas as the Rufous Songlarks fly away after a few moments.

In the last week to week and a half their songs have changed - or should I say become very varied. They occasionally make the typical call of the Rufous Songlark but now that call mostly occurs in the mornings and mid to late afternoon. During the rest of the day they make a whole host of different sounds which I am attempting to record and convert to mp3 files. These other calls are not the same as their typical call, and if you listen carefully to one of the calls, they actually sound like a Superb Fairy Wren calling out.

I'm still trying to get photos of these birds but in time these birds are becoming less scared of humans and I am finding they are coming to me. They are very curious little birds.

Red-rumped Parrots observed information

These gorgeous birds are a regular visitor to my neighbour, Carol's, garden. They spend at least 2 hours each morning eating grass seed on her back lawn from about 9 o'clock onwards. They fly into her garden over the west side gum trees as a flock and then separate into pairs or individuals and begin eating. If disturbed they will generally fly away as a flock into the nearest trees but scatter as a flock rather than all going to the same tree. Some will go this way, the others will fly another way.

When on the ground eating grass seed they avoid areas on the ground that are infested with ants, or even just have a few ants. Ants, even the small ones here, tend to bite anything that touches the ground. Their bites hurt as I've been bitten by ants numerous times just walking barefoot on the grass.

The Red-rumped Parrots generally do not eat from Carol's bird feeder as it usually has a few ants over the feeder. Those ants bite harder than the ants on the ground. However, I have noticed the Red-rumped Parrots spend time in the Silk Tree's top canopy branches (the bird feeder is attached to one of it's branches) especially before they change their feeding location. The Silk Tree is currently in flower which I believe may be attracting the birds in the first place. The Silk Tree is not in the immediate area of their grass seed feeding ground, and is about 10-15 metres away. The birds seem to flutter about in the Silk Tree, hopping from one branch to another before they all fly away.

The Red-rumped Parrots have not been observed eating anything else. However, I did count 15 of these birds when I first spotted them about a week ago and their numbers were about the same today. Their numbers have reduced over the course of a week due to some of the birds not coming into Carol's garden every day. Also, for the passed 3-4 days the outside temperature has been exceptionally high and very humid. This species travels in a flock with at least 2 adult males, an unknown number of adult females and juveniles of between newly fledged/6 months old to about 2 years of age (valid for only this flock). Most of this flock are juveniles of various ages which might actually explain why the parrots are gorging themselves on grass seed, to help the juveniles grow and be strong and healthy.

Generally, Red-rumped Parrots are rarely seen in a flock here in Tenterfield. You'd normally only seen them flying around in pairs, if at all. So it is safe to say that they only flock together when their offspring are old enough to fly around the place in a group - when the juveniles are strong enough to do so - and the chances of being eaten by a predator are reduced when in a flock but also it helps reduce the numbers of individuals being eaten by their "scattering" behaviour.

Click here for the recent Red-rumped Parrot photos of the flock.

There are no more species in Tenterfield

I've finally come to the end of the line here and, as far as I can recall, there are no more bird species that inhabit Tenterfield. I may have forgotten one or two species mostly because they are unidentifable and are lone individuals of their species that inhabit Tenterfield.

With most of the species already gone due to the drought there is nothing more to write about. This blog may become inactive for a while until I can find something to write about. I will try to add mp3 audio files to the bird calls pages in the meantime.

I am still waiting for the swifts/wood/swallows to come back to Tenterfield. I don't know their exact species. They come in large numbers well, probably 100 individuals, and they make nests at the back of Bi-Lo supermarket. It is 1st December and still no sign of them. They fly around the Bi-Lo complex catching insects that are attracted to the lights, and I've only seen them feed as a flock on sunset. It's an awesome experience trying to walk through a flock of these birds as they collect insects for their young. They often fly at 3 feet above the ground to higher than the roof top as a flock. They stay until their young ones are old enough to fly long distances then together they all fly away as a flock never to be seen again until the next summer. They've been coming here for years to breed.

But anyway, birds really don't do much of anything that is interesting. They wake up, eat, rest, eat some more, poop, socialize, breed, play, and sleep. That's it really.The brreding season for all the birds that breed in Spring is over. All the young birds have left the nest and are elsewhere with their parents. Once the birds have left the nest the family flies off and searches all of Tenterfield for food. Where they go to I do not know. What they eat, I don't have a clue unless I stumbled across them when I am in town. Breeding occurs for just a short period of time and most of it is done in secrecy by the birds themselves. Some species, like the Eastern Rosella and Torresian Crow, you can only guess when the young birds have fledged. There is no warning signs at all. One day they're feeding their young in the nest, next day the nest is empty and it has been abandoned. And they do not return to the nest or even the same tree to roost afterward either. Their roosting sites is anyone's guess as well.

I'll post something as soon as I have something new to post.