Whistling Kite - Haliastur sphenurus

My brother pointed out 2 raptors flying over the landscape to the south of us. Unfortunately I got no decent photos of the birds but my brother got a video on his camcorder. I've taken screenshots from the video to get a feel for the birds flying nearby. The birds looked the same colour as in the video with the naked eye, and the one being filmed had a wingspan of more than one metre but less than 2 metres. The one being video recorded appeared larger in size than a Brown Goshawk. The other raptor was of a similiar size to the one recorded and shown here (wingspan length only). Apologies for the poor quality video and screenshots. The closest bird was more than 100 metres from us when it was closest to us.

Whistling Kites seem to check out the area for prey items but do not come into town anymore. I guess their food items have also been reduced to small pockets outside of town. These Whistling Kites were not observed catching anything whilst being recorded on video.

Raptors, like the Whistling Kite, and nocturnal predators like the Tawny Frogmouth are generally seen during very late Summer to the end of Autumn in the area. Whistling Kites' main diet is mammals, birds, insects and fish as well as carrion (dead animals). They do this by soaring above the landscape. They can also be seen circling certain areas where there might be food that they have spotted.

Here are some screenshots from the video my brother took of these magnificent birds.














Plus two cropped and enlarged photos of the bird:




And here is the video:

Brown Goshawk sighting

Having the opportunity to film any kind of Raptor or Owl in the area is "You have to be in the right place at the right time to do so". This opportunity arose and I grabbed it with what tools I had in my possession at the time. Brown Goshawk sightings in Tenterfield is rare, rarer than sighting a Tawny Frogmouth which is pretty rare these days. Apparently Brown Goshawks are secretive birds but there was nothing secretive about this sighting. The poor bird was under attack by Pied Currawongs. Let me explain what happened.

On the 12th of January 2013 a bird landed in one of the gum trees in my neighbour Carol's side garden. At first all I heard and saw was just a commotion of activity of birds in the trees. Pied Currawongs were flying everywhere in and out of the trees. They all seemed to be chasing each other. That was my first impression. But when the Pied Currawongs began chasing a bird out of the tree I knew something was up. Pied Currawongs don't usually chase anything, especially not any local species. They are quite timid and relaxed birds. But the Pied Currawongs were going mental in the trees.

I started filming the birds and saw a larger bird than a Pied Currawong in the tree. It made a sound I'd heard before and instantly knew it was a raptor of some sort. The Currawongs were swooping it and getting really close to it. The raptor tried mostly to ignore it's attackers but spent a great deal of time chasing after the Pied Currawongs to get them to leave it alone.

Studying the videos I took of the whole incident it seems there may have been 2 Brown Goshawks in the trees. I can't be certain though. I done some research on it's call and learnt it was a Brown Goshawk.

This attack went on for quite some time before and after I stop filming it. I noticed that the House Sparrows in the area panicked when the Brown Goshawk was around and ended up over at my place, hiding in the tree by my bedroom window. This happened after I finished filming the attack by the Pied Currawongs. The Sparrows sounded nervous and panicky. Then they went quiet after a while, hoping not to be heard.

Brown Goshawks used to frequent Tenterfield a lot but now they rarely come to this part of the woods. I had never seen one in a tree before. I always used to see them on wing in the air. One of their main food sources is House Sparrows.

It must be really hard for raptors to be constantly chased and attacked by other birds. The Brown Goshawk obviously just wanted to rest for a while but whilst in those trees it barely got any rest at all.

The Brown Goshawk was in the area for about 4-5 days prior to me filming them. After filming it was gone about 24-48 hours later, never to be seen or heard from again.

Below are the 2 videos I recorded of the Brown Goshawk. I have a digital camera that refuses to zoom.




I filmed this raptor because I love the sounds they make. It reminds me of when I was living in South Australia where there were plenty of raptors. My experiences with wild raptors have been up close and personal, for they ventured close to me back then. Now they don't, and filming this raptor was something I didn't want to miss.

Bar-shouldered Dove Geopelia humeralis

Way back on the 22nd December 2012 I was bored and decided to whistle to the birds just to see what would happen. Now, in the area a Bar-shouldered Dove (I've only just identified this bird call as that of the above mentioned Dove) had moved in just a day or three beforehand. There was only one bird calling out therefore I assumed only one individual was in the area. I heard no more than one bird of this species whilst it was here. It made the odd call which made me alert to it's presence. When it called out it only done so 3-4 times then went quiet. I didn't hear the bird again for several or more hours later. I haven't hear this bird in Tenterfield anymore but in the past I have heard it here often.

The Bar-shouldered Dove started hanging around the Crested Pigeons. I heard them both calling out from the same tree several times prior to recording this video. They were all together when this video was recorded I believe - I just can't remember precisely right now.

Anyway, I went outside and decided to start recording a video as there was nothing else to do. There was no "different bird activity" happening at the time and nothing new to take photos of. I was bored out of my brain so I just started whistling. Deciding I would whistle to the birds was an act and idea of spontaneity.

I am not a good whistler. I can't whistle properly and I've never learnt to whistle properly so I apologize for my terrible and loud whistling in this video in advance. I held the camera too close to my face.

Moments before I started whistling the Bar-shouldered Dove was quiet. Actually I hadn't heard it call out for 1/2 a day. I had no idea if it was even in the area still. To my surprise the Bar-shouldered Dove responded to my very first whistle and kept responding by calling after I whistled again, and again, and again, etc. I couldn't believe my ears that this bird was calling back to me over and over and over again. I wasn't even whistling the same note as it was yet it still responded to me.

Below is the trimmed video (from the original) that just has this bird calling back to me. At the end of the video I changed the note I was whistling and the bird stopped calling back to me. Go to this video (on my Youtube channel) to find out what bird calls are heard next. (There's 2 videos to my whistling spontaneity.)


I never saw the bird in irder to get a photo of it, and I could not see it when I went looking for it in the tree. The Bar-shouldered Dove left Tenterfield several days after this video was taken and I haven't heard it since. It was last located by itself for at least a day in a large gum tree near the edge of another neighbour's paddock before it disappeared.

Bar-shouldered Doves left Tenterfield some time ago. This particular individual was passing through town as there were no others of his kind in Tenterfield.

I doubt this is a Noisy Friarbird

Way back on the 21st December 2012 at 10:28AM I heard a very strange noise. It was the noise of a Noisy Friarbird, so I've learnt through researching this bird's call. But thinking about this bird, whatever it was, was here just 3 days after the 45cm Pied Butcherbird arrived in the area. In all my time I have never heard this type of bird call before, and have not heard it since. It does sound somewhat remotely similiar to some of the sounds the Pied Currawongs make though.

The bird in the video was about the size of the 45cm Pied Butcherbird, and may have actually been the Pied Butcherbird for several reasons.

1. I have never seen nor heard a Noisy Friarbird in Tenterfield and I've been here since 1995.
2. The juvenile Pied Butcherbird, being new to the area and lost, made lots of different calls during the first month it was here. It appeared it be distressed and frightened and was alone dispite it's parent looking for it.
3. The Pied Butcherbird juvenile is able to mimic the sounds of an Eastern Koel and other bird species quite accurately even at a very young age.
4. This bird was being attacked by smaller birds which is what happened to the Pied Butcherbird when it arrived. It seems only the larger birds are attacked by smaller birds. Normal sized Pied Butcherbirds are not attacked by small birds in the area. I haven't seen it occur anyway.
5. During the first few weeks of the Pied Butcherbird being here it flew frantically across Tenterfield making all kinds of noises. It was the most distinctive and vocal bird in the area at the time.
6. If this bird were indeed a Noisy Friarbird it would have at least stayed in the area overnight before moving on. It's call would have been heard more often and I may have actually seen the bird.
7. This bird was behaving like it was lost and frightened rather than just passing through town.

I honestly believe that this is the distress call of the Pied Butcherbird juvenile. I remember listening to this bird for several hours straight and felt totally sad that it was lost and in distress. I heard it call out like this for most of that day, relentlessly calling out in hope to be heard. I hoped that it's parents would hear it calling out but they never did. It's plight to be heard by it's parents seemed futile but it hung around the area. This bird was relentless in everything it done.

It wasn't until about week 3 that I believe the bird gave up and decided it would never see it's parents again and was homeless. So it began to settle down and got on with more important things in it's life. Those 3 weeks must've been torture for the bird as no other bird gave it peace nor comfort. No bird adopted it either. And no bird stopped chasing and attacking it when it was distressed. But the last time I saw this bird it wasn't being attacked by anything. Birds left it alone.

Why the bird had been separated from it's parents is anyone's guess really. Perhaps a raptor chased it but couldn't catch it and the bird kept flying as it was so scared until it found itself lost in Tenterfield? All I know it is not a bird from Tenterfield as there are no extremely large Pied Butcherbirds here.

I cannot help but think that if this bird becomes a parent, which it will in time, it will be very protective of it's chick/s. For some reason I think it will not let it's chicks go through what it went through. But I'm just guessing here, as I really don't know how birds react in this situation with their own chicks.

Hey, who's eaten all the frogs?

Slowly the frogs in the Tenterfield Creek began to stop croaking day after day until finally none could be heard within the creek itself. That was about a week ago. Their silence (or absence) seems to be a common occurrance in the area. With the increase of large water birds in the area, although only temporarily, maybe the frogs decided it was safer to leave the creek altogether than risk being eaten by these water birds?

Frogs can usually be heard any time of the day or night in the creek. That was until recently but now the creek is empty of frogs. I am actually in two minds over whether the frogs have been eaten or not, as I'm starting to think that although some of them may have been eaten, I also think frogs just moved out of the creek either to breed or to go somewhere safer during their non-breeding season. Come to think of it, it is more common to hear frogs along the side of the road than it is to hear them in the creek. That's over a 12 month period by the way.

Generally frog-eating birds do not hang around the sides of the road away from the creek. It is even rare to see these type of birds close to human houses. But frogs hanging around people's gardens is common.

Any surviving frogs tend to move away from the creek - to puddles on the side of the road or even move into people's gardens. For example, the closest frog to the creek in my area is at the corner of Francis and Douglas Streets, a whole 3/4 of a block away from the creek (more than 100 metres). There are more frogs on Francis Street, north side of Douglas Street, but they are about 1/3 the distance closer to the Tenterfield Creek.

Going further away from the Tenterfield Creek, between Francis and Rouse Streets, along Clive Street, there are several different species of frogs on the edge of the road at the moment. The area is grassed and it dips down to form a ditch on the side of the road and they are concentrated around and near water culvets.

Frogs calling out along Clive Street. When the frogs go quiet all you hear is a cricket.

What do birds do when it is a hot Summers' day?

What do birds do when its too hot? Not much really. All the birds tend to sit in the trees somewhere in a shady spot and just rest for hours on end. I've observed a few different species during the hot weather, so I will write about them.

EASTERN ROSELLAS

Eastern Rosellas generally talk a lot when it is quite hot outside. They tend to sit just below the upper leaves of a tree's branches - if its a small tree - or in the top 1/3 part of a large gum tree. They tend to rest from about 12 noon until 5PM without moving from the tree or eating/drinking.

Here is an example of a male Eastern Rosella. The male was looking out for danger whilst his mate was in the next tree to the left. My brother got a bit too close to the tree where they both were seen together in, and they flew out of that tree into separate trees.


When I first spotted the male in a different tree....

Then he began to slouch down so I couldn't see him.

With Eastern Rosellas it is pointless trying to photograph them when it is hot. They hide themselves really well in the canopy of the tree they are in, and actually hide themselves behind leaves. On a separate day I searched for 15 minutes trying to spot a pair of Eastern Rosellas (the same individual and his mate as in these photos) in a small tree I was standing underneath, and I could not see them. I could hear them but that was about it.

LAUGHING KOOKABURRAS

A baby Laughing Kookaburra. Photo taken on 17 february 2013

This photo was taken at 2:49PM and the Kookaburra's parent was hiding in the tree canopy of a smaller gum tree to the left of this tree. The young Kookaburra was exposed in this tree, on a low branch probably about 8-10 feet off the ground. It was a hot day, probably about 37 plus degrees celcius. My brother and I were walking home from doing some shopping in town at the time. We were on the other side of the road when I took some photos of this baby Kookaburra. Only when I spoke to the Kookaburra asking it where it's parents were did the parent respond by giving off a quiet Kookaburra laugh for about 10 seconds then it went quiet. As if to say I'm over here in this tree and I am watching you!

PIED BUTCHERBIRDS

This video above is of the sounds of a Pied Butcherbird during a very hot day and it is mimicking the sounds of an Eastern Koel. The Pied Butcherbird stayed in the tree the longest and was in the tree for more than 5 hours before it flew away. The tree in which this Pied Butcherbird was in was the large Eucalypt tree. I could not see the bird as it hid well amongst the tree branches. I did not want to scare this bird from the tree even though it was really high above the ground, so I stayed on the verandah. If I moved toward the gum tree on the ground the bird would fly to another tree as I tried that prior to the filming of this video.

This particular Pied Butcherbird is the same 45cm Pied Butcherbird I've previously written about on this site.

AUSTRALIAN MAGPIES

Australian Magpie

This photo was taken on 13 October 2012 at 11:39AM. It was a really hot morning and day in general. For about a week between 1 - 4 Magpies hung around my neighbour Carol's front yard in the shade of this particular slow growing tree. The Magpie was about half way up the tree in the shade. Sometimes when Australian Magpies are resting from the heat they will quietly sing but most times they are quiet and just observant of what is going on around them. The juveniles are the ones that sing quietly when it is hot. Magpies usually rest in the trees from around 12 noon until about 3-4PM. Juveniles stay in the trees about 1/2 an hour longer than the adults do and only hunger will make them move out of the tree/s.

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.

UPDATE: Grey Shrike-thrush bred and moved on

It has been almost 3 months since I wrote anything about the Grey Shrike-thrushes. A lot has happened during that time.

The third Grey Shrike-thrush female stayed with the male and they nested somewhere near the Tenterfield Showgrounds, probably along the bank of the Tenterfield Creek in one of the Gum trees there. Things went quiet around this time with only the occasional sighting of the birds yet they were heard more than seen. Then one day, on the 13 December 2012, I spotted 2 juveniles. The father was accompanying them, watching them from nearby trees and I only ever heard him from time to time. I never actually saw him at all. The next day both parents and juveniles were gone, never to be seen again. That's it really. It looks like these birds only stayed in town to breed and once the chicks fledged they all left town once they juveniles were strong enough to fly longer distances. With the Grey Shrike-thrushes gone, I can't update anymore information about them.

Should these birds come back so be it but it looks like they're gone forever from the area.

Anyway, here's the only 3 videos of the juveniles that I have.

Tawny Frogmouth Podargus strigoides

I went outside last night around 11:45PM and all I heard was this strange noise coming from a low branch in one of my neighbour, Carol's, gum trees. At first I thought it was some sort of owl, as it was around the same time of night that one would normally hear an owl here. But I couldn't figure out what was making the sound. I knew it wasn't a Masked Owl nor a Powerful Owl. I ended up by walking over to the gum tree and was about 10 feet underneath the bird that was calling out. The bird called out for about 20 minutes before it disappeared. It was not anywhere to be seen this morning in any of the trees.

After taking a few videos from a distance I finally got a clear recording of the bird's call which I'm adding below. If you can't hear anything then turn your speakers up to 100%. The bird call can be heard about half way through the recording.


This is not the normal sound one would hear from a Tawny Frogmouth. Whether the bird was a male or female I do not know. I know nothing about Tawny Frogmouths except what they look like and the fact they are nocturnal. Tawny Frogmouths disappeared from Tenterfield a few years back and the fact that this bird flew away 20 minutes later indicates that it appears to be doing the exact same thing as the Masked Owl that travels through Tenterfield about 2-3 times a year. It is nice to see that Tawny Frogmouths are still in the area albeit scattered. What caused them to disappear from the area is a mystery.

This morning I done a bit of research on Tawny Frogmouths, and their voice is similiar to what I recorded on my digital camera. But the sound/call I recorded and heard is not the same as what I found for Tawny Frogmouths on the Internet. I know all birds make different sounds especially during the breeding season, so I'm taking a stab in the dark here and calling this bird a Tawny Frogmouth until proven otherwise.

What was making these wolf whistle sounds if it wasn't Starlings?

Have you ever had one of those days when you think you've heard everything? Yesterday was one of those days for me. Around 1:25pm the local birds were chirping away when suddenly I heard 2 birds making wolf whistle calls. As I got my camera ready I made sure it was not people making this wolf whistle, and unless people climbed trees to whistle from, it was not people.

I distinctively heard 2 birds, one by the creek to the north of the Douglas Street bridge, the other in one of the gum trees in my neighbour, Carol's, garden. The audio to the video is really bad quality, and was much louder in real life - actually it was twice as loud as the audio in this video. The 2 birds were calling out to each other using this wolf whistle sound. The sounds stopped after about 45 seconds, and I never heard it again.

I done a bit of research on birds that can mimic other sounds and the Common Starling is at the top of the list for this article. It is the only species I know of that actually exists in Tenterfield from this list of mimicking birds that do wolf whistle sounds. The other species on my list, so far, are the Upland Sandpiper; Superb Lyrebird; Black-capped Chicadees; Whip-poor-wills; White-faced Whistling Ducks; Greenfinch; and the Tragopans. All the birds except for the Superb Lyrebird, the Greenfinch, and Starlings do not exist in Australia, not even as an introduced species as far as I know.

So, here lies the problem... let's say the wolf whistle was made by 2 Starlings. Why would they only make this sound for less than 50 seconds, use it for communication, and never repeat the sound for years on end? I've read that Starlings mimic sounds because they hear it a lot, and are influenced by that sound. If that is true, then shouldn't the Starlings make these sounds at more regular intervals than just once every few years? It doesn't make sense to me.

I hear Starlings almost every day around here, and they make the typical Starling noises, despite the differences in their songs. But never have I heard a Starling make such a dramatically different sound as this wolf whistle before. It just does not match their behaviour nor their vocalisation really.

I am actually ruling out that these birds were Starlings simply because it was a once off sound, and it was used for communication. The 2 birds were about 200-300 metres apart when calling to each other. In the video below, you can hear a distinctive loud wolf whistle call being made at 0:20 seconds but you can hear both birds prior to that calling out, albeit faintly.

It is definately not a Greenfinch, an Upland Sandpiper nor a Blackbird as the wolf whistle sound is different between these species.



For reference, I found this video of a blackbird that mimics different sounds in order to attract a mate. I am ruling out the Blackbird as the likely suspect, as the birds I heard were obviously a pair and communicating to each other.



I honestly believe that the wolf whistle sounds were not used to attract a mate, as the other bird was doing it as well. In conclusion, going on the fact that different bird species often temporarily stay in Tenterfield for as little as just overnight, it is more than probable that the birds in this video were just passing through. That being the case then these wolf whistling birds are not from the local area at all.

AFTER THOUGHT: There is one possibility that it could be an unheard of call from the Grey Shrike-thrush. I'm not ruling the Grey Shrike-thrush out just yet as a possible culprit as it sings a lot of different songs, moreso than another other bird in the area, next to the Eastern Rosella of course.

Little Corella Cacatua sanguinea



Little Corella in broad daylight

Little Corella alpha leader of group in less light

My daughter and I were visiting our neighbour when, whilst outside for a while, a flock of large, screeching, white birds with yellow wings flew overhead and began landing in the back wattle tree. I honestly thought they were Sulphur-crested Cockatoos! They looked and sounded the same as they flew overhead and whilst in the tree and were about the same size too.

Now the thing I have yet to see is an actual Sulphur-crested Cockatoo eat Wattle seed so I got out my camera and started filming them eating Wattle seed. I ended up by taking some photos of the birds too but they were taken just about when it was getting dark. It wasn't until I uploaded the videos and photos to my computer that I noticed they didn't have the large crest like a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. Some had crestless heads (their crests were laying flat against their heads) and from what I could see of the birds' faces they had red between their eyes and their beak. After a bit of Google image searching I realized these birds were Little Corellas. Yah, another species to add to my Tenterfield bird list, I thought to myself!

Now, I've seen this same small flock of birds for a month or so. There is probably around 50 to 70 birds to the flock roughly. I actually thought the Sulphur-crested Cockatoos had thinned out, and just a small number of them remained, eating whatever seed was left. But obviously I was wrong, terribly wrong apparently. This actually means the really large flock of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos (over 200 individuals) have actually left Tenterfield not long after the Little Corellas moved in.

Here's the gist about Little Corellas, just on about 10 minutes of observation of them. They hang together in a flock. They absolutely love Wattle seeds. They allow you to get reasonably close to them, within about 20-30 feet of them, if you walk slowly. They spook easily. They panic and fly away if you or a large animal run passed or gets too close to them (walking slowly within 8-10 feet of them or running passed them at any distance within 20-50 feet of them). If eating from a tree, a few of the birds will fly back straight away into the wattle tree, the rest will fly into a nearby but distant tree (any tree species that has lots of branches so they can all land in the same tree) out of harms way. One of the birds in the wattle tree will call out to the others from the very top of the tree whilst keeping a close eye on what disturbed them. The rest of the flock then flies back into the wattle tree once there is nothing in their "comfort zone". About 90% of the birds squark/screech all the time during the time they are disturbed from when they are eating.

Little Corellas seem to be more accepting of humans and domesticated pets than Sulphur-crested Cockatoos. They seem to respond to humans in a social way if spoken to or approached in a gentle manner. They are curious birds but weary at the same time.

There appears to be one alpha bird of the flock. They feed together as a group and get spooked as a group. The alpha bird tells the others when its safe to come back and resume feeding. The alpha bird stands it's ground, almost as if it is claim the tree as it's own on behalf of the entire flock when they are nearby in another tree. There does not seem to be individuality (or each bird for itself) like with Torresian Crows when they are feeding.

All that I know for certain that they eat thus far is Wattle seeds. They are the only other bird species I have seen eat Wattle seeds here in Tenterfield. The other species to eat Wattle seed is the Australian King Parrot. I'll need to study the Little Corellas eating habits in the next few days to see what else they eat.

Could this be the Grey Shrike-thrush?

I wanted to add this video as a post rather than as a video itself simply because I am uncertain if these birds are Grey Shrike-thrushes. I have not heard the Grey Shrike-thrush for some time now, and in fact I stopped listening for the bird altogether. When I was at my neighbour Carol's place yesterday, I began hearing a bird calling that I've heard in the past but not this year. Then a second bird begins making the same calls a lot closer to me.

I managed to get a shot of the closest bird to me to sort of identify the bird species but I can't tell if it actually is a Grey Shrike-thrush or not. The setting sun turned the bird brown, and the shadows from the tree gave the bird a black head at times. But this does not look like the Grey Shrike-thrush that was visiting Carol's garden but the bird's behaviour is similiar to the bird. It is very confusing.

If this bird is a Grey Shrike-thrush, then I am happy to say that this call is another call that that species makes. I did not hear the typical Grey Shrike-thrush sounds that they make either before or after this video was recorded.

I can't see the honeyeaters for the plum tree

Spring is the time of year when two things happen: the majority of birds start breeding in Tenterfield, and decidious trees begin to regrow their leaves and new branches. Out the front of my bedroom window is a decidious plum tree that is really thick with leaves and branches and despite it being turned into a bush a few years ago it is thickening up so much now that I can barely see my Grevilleas anymore.

Today some honeyeaters visited my Grevillea and all I saw was a flash of feathers as the bird flew around. The honeyeater in question that I recorded in the video below is either the Eastern Spinebill, White-plumed Honeyeater or the Yellow-faced Honeyeater. I simply can't make out which species it is, not visually anyway. I haven't tried to audio identify this bird yet.

Getting a good video of any of the three honeyeater species that visits my Grevilleas is now going to be extremely difficult through this dense foliage. It was bad enough that I could only record these birds from inside my bedroom as they flew away every time I went outside. Either I do the best I can with what I can see or wait until the plum tree has grown larger branches so the Grevilleas are a lot more visible. But the problem is when this plum tree grows it gets thicker and there is not a lot of light that penetrates the ground underneath it.

I would not get rid of this tree for all the Tea in China. It is the best shade tree I have ever found in Tenterfield. In Summer, when the rest of my home is scorching hot my bedroom is nice and cool. When the tree is in full leaf the tree's shade is at least 10 degrees cooler than when you're in the sun. There are actually 2 of these plum trees out the front and both are trying to reestablish themselves to look like trees again.

Willie Wagtail Rhipidura leucophrys

I forgot about adding this little bird to my list. There are not many of them in Tenterfield anymore. I'm not sure just how many there were in town before birds started disappearing around 2004 - 2006.

The Willy Wagtail is an insect eater. It catches insects either in flight or walks around and disturbs insects in the grass by flapping it's wings. This species is known for it's tail wagging movements. It is a black and white bird with a black throat and has white eyebrows and whisker markings. A breeding pair usually form a life long bond and will stay together with each other.

The Willy Wagtail is one of the very few birds that sings for most of the night. This occurs mostly in Winter but can continue into Spring. The males have been heard singing around midnight until just before dawn. Then it has a break whilst the sun rises and then starts singing again about 10 - 30 minutes later.

Their night time calls have been recorded by me but I had to delete most of them due to poor audio quality and an inaccurate sound recording recorded by my mobile phones. Their songs of a night time tend to change and can be slightly different each night. The male and female of this species is almost identical.

The main predator of the Willy Wagtail is the Torresian Crow which will steal and eat their eggs and their young nestlings. The Willy Wagtail numbers were I live have not increased due to predator attacks of their nest, year in and year out.

One of the first videos I took of a Willy Wagtail. It was preening itself on the
fence but did not make a noise. It's a Torresian Crow's call you hear in this video.

Common Starlings Sturnus vulgaris

It has taken me a while to identify this bird species as they generally look slightly different to the normal Common Starlings. The ones in Tenterfield are mostly black in colour. It is really hard to see the other colours that is commonly seen on a Starling, on a cloudy day. These birds are mostly heard before they are seen, and you can easily mistake them for being a Common Blackbird. The birds in the first video I believe are juvenile birds mostly. If you look carefully and pause the video a lot, you can see a bird on the far left that has circle colourations on it's body and has a light brown wing. These are the markings of a Common Starling. Right at the end of this first video the birds were alerted to a Torresian Crow coming in to get the pasta, so the Starlings flew away.

The video above was recorded today - 29 October 2012 around 12:30PM   The video below is mostly of the alert sound created by Starlings. I originally mistook this bird I recorded for a Satin Bowerbird.
This video was taken on Miles Street looking over the horse stables and into the Tenterfield Showgrounds. I saw a big black bird fly into the area where the Starlings were, and then a sort of fight broke out.
Common Starlings are somewhat common throughout Tenterfield and flock together in large numbers. They can be seen on power lines, flying into large trees, or on the ground where there is wide open spaces. They eat grass seeds. What else they eat I have yet to research. Apparently Common Starlings build their nests under the rooves of humans' houses and apparently have lice and spread lice too. Maybe that's where human children get head lice from; as Starlings are commonly sighted hanging around schools? It's just a thought.

White-plumed Honeyeater Lichenostomus penicillatus

The White-plumed Honeyeater is a rare visitor to Tenterfield. I believe I have not seen this bird before or have not paid attention to it's calls before. I'm just not sure about this species as to whether it is a resident bird species or not. Either way I have yet to see any more than one individual of this species. below is a video I took of my first sighting of this species. The sighting occurred at my neighbour Carol's place on the 6th October 2012.

All I know about this bird species is it is shown eating something from the new growth of the tree it was seen in. I'm not even sure of the tree species it was in.

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?

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.

Yellow-faced Honeyeater eating Grevillea nectar

Thinking I was hearing House Sparrows out in my front garden I was quite surprised to see what I first thought was a House Sparrow eating nectar from the Grevilleas in my garden. House Sparrows don't eat nectar as far as I know. I've never seen them eat it anyway. I was a little bit suspicious of this bird being a House Sparrow so I got my digital camera out and put it in video mode, and found it was not a House Sparrow but rather a Yellow-faced Honeyeater. I couldn't ID the bird at first glance. I had to watch the video and pause it, then compare it to the Yellow-faced Honeyeater photo I took, that I've added to this site.

The bird was first located in the bush where I first zoomed the camera into, then it flew down into the Grevilleas closest to me. It look me almost 2 minutes into this video to locate the bird in my Grevilleas as the native Plum tree's leaves were mostly in the way. I could not also get the right angle to view the bird properly, and my reaction was slower than normal as I have pulled my right arm muscles and it hurts to move the camera and my arm.

This honeyeater species is the size of a House Sparrow. It is somewhat a noisy bird, just like a House Sparrow is, and it loves nectar. This is the very first video I have of this bird species in Tenterfield, and going on the rustling sounds and calls it was making I believe there were two of these birds but the other one always kept out of sight.

There are very few Grevillea plants in Tenterfield that I have seen, which makes it difficult for honeyeaters to locate nectar from these type of plants. It therefore must eat nectar from various other plant and tree sources in the local area. This particular bird's residence, I believe, is in the Tenterfield Creek well away from the roads, near my home.

Yellow-faced Honeyeaters are much easier to video record and photograph than an Eastern Spinebill. It moves slower and ocassionally takes a rest as viewed in this video. However, it is a somewhat shy bird, and it prefers thick plant cover to hide in - or at least to roost in. This species may allow you to approach it from a distance if you do so slowly but that is just a guess right now.

Below is the video I took around 12PM today - give or take a few minutes.

Laughing Kookaburra Dacelo novaeguineae

Laughing Kookaburras are common throughout the township of Tenterfield but their territories are at least 1.4 kilometres in size. There must be at least 2-3 pairs of these Kookaburras in town but that is just a guess. Laughing Kookaburras tend to eat lizards, mice, and basically anything else including some small snakes.

Before sunset Kookaburras tend to get together.

Where to see Laughing Kookaburras:
The best place to see these birds are on power lines away from the main street. An adult Laughing Kookaburra has been observed on the power lines at the back of Bi-Lo supermarket on the edge of the grass park area, opposite the Catholic Church. They are also spotted and heard to the south-west of the Post Office (1.4kms from the Post Office).

I don't have a photo of a Laughing Kookaburra as yet but I do have this short video. I'm still trying to get my camera to focus on things above my head, and still need lots more practice with it.