Grey Shrike-thrush Colluricincla harmonica

For a few months now I have been trying to identify this particular species. The grey Shrike-thrush is a mostly grey coloured bird with brown wings and about 24cms on average in size. Despite it's ordinary appearance it has a beautiful call that is heard over the top of smaller birds in the area. It is easily identified by it's call.

This species spends a lot of time eating insects. The bird in this video below is , I believe, a juvenile that has reached breeding age. I do not know much about this particular species as yet. However, there is one resident bird in the immediate area which is trying to get the attention of a mate. This individual (see video below), seems to be building a nest even though this seems to be a part time job at the moment for this bird. It frequently visits the chosen nesting site several times a day, and adds new nesting material to it. This nesting behaviour only began on or just before the 8th of October. It's main concern at the moment is luring it's mate to the nest which seems to be frightened of humans and dogs. It's mate is shy and timid and easily spooked. It's mate is willing, or appears to be willing to mate with it, but appears to not be keen on the chosen nesting site 6 feet from my neighbour Carol's back door. The main reason why it's mate flies away is because it is spooked by the presence of humans looking at it, my neighbour's dog suddenly barking, and the fact my neighbour's dog keeps chasing the birds away despite being told not to do that.

This species eats insects from climbing roses and rose bushes in general. It also eats insects from around the house and underneath verandahs which includes on windows if they can get to the insects. It also has been observed eating something on a Wisteria flower vine. I'm not sure if Wisteria flowers produce nectar or not or whether it is something else, but the Grey Shrike-thrush was attracted to the flowers when it was in flower. Intertwined with the Wisteria is a climbing rose, in my neighbour, Carol's garden.

Nesting material, at the preliminary stage, appears to be mostly plant material, like leaves of gum trees. It will add new nesting material to the nest 2-3 times a day before mating has occurred.

The song of the Grey Shrike-thrush, in the immediate area, first started out fairly quiet but as September approached it's voice got louder and louder. It's mate's voice is a lot quieter, probably half as loud (in Hertz). With the unique echoing effect of Tenterfield's landscape this bird can easily be heard within at least a 4km area of it's location in every direction. It makes a variety of different calls with an easy to identify sound that sounds like a whip crack.or a "whit-will" sound.

I have read that some species of birds (which includes the Grey Shrike-thrush) have increased their songs' loudness in cities so they can be heard over the top of traffic, etc. This individual's song is quite loud, as loud as a Willy Wagtail in the middle of the night but not quite as loud as a Torresian Crows call. I would say, though, it is almost as loud as a Red Wattlebird's call. This makes me wonder if this particular individual bird originally came from a city, perhaps Brisbane?

An exception to the rule: one White-faced Heron nesting by itself

I've read on the birdsinbackyard.net and other bird websites that both parents build the nest, incubate the eggs and raise the young. Well, in Tenterfield, that is not the case at all. What I have seen is when breeding season occurs, two adults come together more than likely just to mate. After a few days or a week they go their separate ways. One of the adult birds remains and does all the hard work of building the nest and sitting on the eggs all by itself.

You see, I have observed this behaviour quite closely over the last few weeks. I take note of how many White-faced Herons there generally are in the area, and that total adds to just one individual when it is here. This species is very noticable and is the biggest bird around in the immediate area of where I live. Its a bluish grey colour and it has a white face, hence it's name. And because there is only one individual ever sighted 99% of the time, seeing two of them together means its breeding season.

About a few weeks ago I saw a White-faced Heron checking out a gum tree over the Tenterfield Creek. Over the course of a few weeks I only ever saw just one White-faced Heron going to that tree, and a nest started being built in that tree. It was a really large nest being built but several times I could not identify the bird species coming from the nest. Every time I was near that section of the creek I took photos of the nest from two different angles. In about 3/4 of the photos I took I only saw the nest, nothing else. I actually avoid the area to give the bird some privacy, and also I scare off any Torresian Crows that are hanging around the tree or immediate area (as they steal eggs from nests even with birds sitting on them). There's about 15 Torresian Crows to one White-faced Heron. Sometimes, I feel, birds need a helping hand, especially in instances like this, to guarantee the offsprings' survival. Other people may feel differently about this than I do, and that's fine but if the Torresian Crows had their way they'd eat all the other bird species' eggs leaving no eggs to hatch at all.

Anyway, back to the photos I took. When I uploaded them to my computer and looked at them I discovered there was indeed a White-faced Heron sitting on the nest. Its true though that their nests are generally hanging over a water course, whether a creek, dam or lake and is high in a gum tree on an outer branch. When I first spotted the two White-faced Herons together but only recorded one on video feeding along by the creek, this was about the last time I saw two of these Herons here. There has only been one Heron in the area ever since that time.

On the 11th October 2012 we had very strong gusty winds and a very heavy downpour of rain. It would have been about an inch of rain we got over a 24 hour period. The next day was slightly a little bit better but the strong gusty winds remained but we had more drizzle than rain and the sun started to try peeking out through the odd thinned cloud. Yesterday was a perfect day: it was sunny, warm but not overly hot, and the breeze was gentle with not a cloud in sight.

The White-faced Heron's nest withstood the gale force winds and remained intact. The Heron itself, as far as I could tell, remained on the nest for 2 days straight (48 hours) protecting it's eggs from the rain until the rain and wind passed. Just before sunset on the second day I heard the White-faced Heron call out. Was the bird calling out to another bird or was it just relieved and singing with joy that the storm was ending? Only the bird itself can answer that question!

Below are some photos of the White-faced Heron's nest taken over the course of a week. Click to enlarge each photo.

The bird's back as it is about to
sit on it's nest.

You can just see it's beak and the
top of it's back.

Another view of the Heron on it's nest.

I think it has spotted me.

The nest looks empty but more side
twigs have been added.

Still on the nest.

Turquoise Parrot Neophema pulchella

The Turquoise Parrot is a bird species you rarely see in Tenterfield but yesterday I was out the front of my neighbour's house and a Turquoise Parrot family landed in the tree. Actually at first I didn't know they were Turquoise Parrots. They were well camouflaged in the tree. I also thought there were two separate species that flew into the tree. There was already a Australian Magpie in that same tree. I had to research which parrot species I video recorded and it was hard to identify the species using the poor quality videos I took, but finally concluded they were Turquoise Parrots, as this species is supposedly sighted in the area. I identified the species by not only the colouring of the birds but also noticed the male had a small narrow band of reddish/brown coloured feathers on his wings, which I glimpsed sight of in the very last video I took.

This family group may be a new colour variation as they all appeared to have a very light coloured underside, from their rectum to the tips of their tails. Either that or the two parent birds were very, very young and still developing their full colouring.

Below are a few screenshots from 3 of the 4 videos I took of this Turquoise Parrot family. There were only 3 birds to the family group: a mum; a dad; and a junenile of what gender I do not know. Click each image to enlarge it.

I first saw and heard what later turned out to be the juvenile, which is mostly what I got video recordings of. I don't know how old the juvenile is but it looks fairly young and does not appear to have developed a yellow belly yet. Moments later I heard more rustling in the tree; movement near the juvenile, and movement higher up almost directly above these first two birds.

When looking into the tree with the naked eye the juvenile looks just like a grey bird. The other two birds were more noticably greener with a yellow belly - when I could actually see them. The two adult birds blended very well into the tree's foliage making it very difficult to see them. In fact the only time I could see them was when they moved and I saw a flash of yellow and green. That's all I saw of the adults. I have left the videos below unedited because the juvenile appeared to be the only bird making any kind of sound. I didn't want to change anything in case I accidentally removed some of the sounds the juvenile was making.


One of the adult birds.


Mostly of the juvenile. I don't know what is wrong with this video but it keeps freezing.




The one thing I do know about this species is if they come in close proximity to humans they hide in the foliage, keep perfectly still, and do not make a sound. These birds blend so well into their surroundings that it is actually impossible to spot them in a tree with the naked eye. If this bird species is spotted  it is probably better to start video recording them rather than try and take photos of them. To find them anywhere in the wild is based purely on knowledge of their idea of food, and as they migrate to locate food, it is even harder to locate them in the wild. My best advice is if you know they are in the area at a certain time of the year, look in the trees that they'd most likely be in, and see if you can listen for any movement in the branches. If you see a flash of bright yellow and green, it is bound to be this species. They also have been spotted feeding in bird feeders much earlier in the year, usually moving on within minutes of landing at a bird feeder.

Yesterday, these birds were also seen in a Wattle tree as well as hiding in a Pine tree. I could not tell if they were actually feeding on the premature wattle seeds or not but they hung around the wattle tree for a while before they moved on.

What the heck is this bird feather from?

Walking home today from shopping, my daughter and I were walking along Francis Street toward Douglas Street (north side of intersection), when I saw a few feathers on the ground. I picked up a daggy old feather that had fallen off a bird. At first sight I thought it was an Australian Magpie feather, as when they fall out they are brown in colour (the all black ones). Nearby was an actual Australian Magpie feather which I also picked up. But as I was walking and looking at this feather I suddenly realized it had a metallic green sheen all over it (on the topside of the feather). WTF?

A noticable sheen but it's not the right colour green.

In full daylight this feather looks black with a metallic green sheen. In the shade the feather is actually brown as shown in this image above. I've tried my best to take a photo of the metallic green sheen but the actual green colour (in comparison to the image above) is actually a brighter mid green. The sheen covers the entire feather on the topside but is more prominent on the narrowest width of the feather in the sunlight and when trying to photgraph it. The feather itself is 16.5cm long and is an incomplete feather. It is missing feathery parts at the bottom of the feather. It has also been broken and is falling apart just below where the feathery part of the feather should begin. The feather was not there a few days ago, as I had already checked that area for feathers.

There are a few entirely black birds here in Tenterfield but none of them have an actual metallic green sheen in their wing feathers.

When we got home, we went to visit our neighbour, Carol, and I showed her the feather. She told me of some green metallic looking birds she had seen last year/summer in her garden. Carol had told me this sighting before but I forgot about it until when she told me about it again, tonight. Carol described the birds as being the size of Rainbow Lorikeets and they looked similiar in shape. They were eating grass seeds? on her lawn, and were actually on the ground. She saw them from above as she was looking out her kitchen window. The birds all looked green in colour, all basically the same coloured green colour but had a metallic green sheen on them.

This is just complicated now. I do not know of any all green coloured parrot that has a green metallic sheen to it, that lives in Australia. Nor do I know if a green feather, when it falls out of a bird, actually turns brown before it falls out the bird. I do know an all black feather will turn brown before it falls out. I've seen it happen on Australian Magpies. If I knew that then I could perhaps find out if this feather belonged to a parrot-like bird.

One more mystery to solve!

A possible new Eastern Spinebill species

I had a welcome visit of an Eastern Spinebill to my Grevilleas today which I captured on video. The above video is not of that sighting/visit. A few minutes later (what I thought was the same bird) the bird returned. But to my amazement as I looked out my bedroom window I saw a tiny version of an Eastern Spinebill, roughly 10cm in length (give or take one centimentre). I could not believe how small this bird was!

At first I thought it was a juvenile but after comparing this video with previous Eastern Spinebill videos I had taken through my bedroom window, I saw this bird has full adult plumage and it's colouring is identical, as far as I can tell so far, to that of a regular Eastern Spinebill. Pausing the video I also saw this bird has a shorter and flatter bottom half of it's bill. It's bill looks straighter than a normal Eastern Spinebill's bill.

I am still excited about this discovery, but I don't want to state that it is an actual new species as the two Eastern Spinebill species have too many similiarities, and I still need to study this bird more to see if there is something uniquely different with it. I also need clearer footage of this particular bird so I can properly identify it.

Black Swan Cygnus atratus

A sighting that I heard and saw between 5 and 12 Black Swans flying overhead yesterday was extremely rare. I was walking home from the shops with my daughter and my brother. We were on Francis Street heading toward Douglas Street behind the ST. Joseph's Primary School at the time of this sighting. The swans were flying from the Tenterfield Dam in a north-west direction just after the sun had set and was getting really dark. They were hooting as they were flying. They were flying at a low altitude, perhaps 3-5 power poles in height from the ground. It is extremely rare to see swans in Tenterfield unless you go to the Tenterfield Dam. The only times you will see a swan in Tenterfield itself is if they are flying overhead in a north-west or south-east direction. Apparently in northern Australia, outside the breeding season (June-January of each year) Black Swans fly great distances in flocks after dark.

I tried getting a video recording of the swans but my camera was too slow to start up.

Australian Wood Ducks now absent

For about a week now I have not seen any Australian Wood Ducks anywhere in Tenterfield. I cannot remember if they migrate elsewhere but I do remember these particular ducks not being in Tenterfield before and then they showed up again but can't remember what time of the year this happened in the past.

There have been a few seasons that I remember where Australian Wood Ducks have actually bred in Tenterfield. I remember seeing little ducklings along the Tenterfield Creek with their parent for at least 2 or 3 seasons, last year being the last season I saw them. My neighbour, Carol, told me she counted 17 ducklings all up with 2 adults watching over them.

Their breeding season up here is apparently "after the rain", which is more than likely in Summer/Autumn sometime. But due to the ongoing drought which is still not breaking, if the ducks had any sense they would leave town, as well.

UPDATE: 2 october 2012 - The Australian Wood Ducks have returned. Obviously they disappeared for a little while but returned yesterday afternoon.