Is this a Jacky Winter? - NOW IDENTIFIED

Photo taken on 20 August 2012.

Whilst at my neighbour Carol's place I heard a bird hopping across lower tree branches. I could not actually see the bird itself as it kept moving out of view. But I took this photo believing I did not capture the bird in question. I just aimed roughly where I believed the bird was and took a single photo. After this photo was taken the noise stopped and I didn't hear the bird moving again. Was it gone? More than likely it flew off without me knowing about it.

When viewing the photo on my computer it actually took me a while to see the bird in this photo as I did not know what I was looking at - bird wise. Once I saw this bird in the picture I took on my pc I actually cropped the photo to make the bird more noticable in the image.

This bird was very elusive and shy but made quite a noise jumping from tree branch to tree branch, which was what originally caught my attention.

Doing a bit of Google searching on Jacky Winter images, it appears I may have photographed a Jacky Winter in my neighbour's garden. But I am still not satisfied that it is a Jacky Winter. It may be a juvenile bird or a completely different bird altogether.

This month (August) I have seen and heard some pretty birds that I have yet to identify. I only have one photo of this possible Jacky Winter. I have no idea how large it was, but going by the sounds of it's movements in the tree branches it sounded bigger than a finch, possibly as large as a Magpie Lark or bigger. But that is just assuming. Until I see this bird again I will not know for certain what it is.

FOOTNOTE - 31 OCTOBER 2012: This bird is actually a Grey Shrike-thrush that has not reached full maturity yet. It reached breeding maturity this Spring, so is probably about 2 years of age right now.

Are these Common House Sparrows?

Two days ago, just moments after taking the photo of the Common Starling/Myna? I came across these birds. I believe they may be your normal House Sparrows but I would like to be certain. They were photographed in the driveway of the Bi-Lo's Rouse Street entrance.

There was probably about 12 - 20 of these birds flying about the left tree out the front of Pederby House and then flew into the Bi-Lo Rouse Street driveway entrance trees when startled by me and my brother walking passed them. They look like House Sparrows and are about the same size but the next photo doesn't look like a House Sparrow to me, well not quite anyway. I managed to get a slightly closer up photo of one of the birds in the tree. The sun was behind me and was getting very low in the sky. It was around 5PM when I took these photos.

House Sparrows are supposed to be grey and brown with the male being more colourful with a dark head. Juvenile House Sparrows are duller in colour and are more grey in colour than brown. House Sparrows are fairly common in Tenterfield but their numbers have declined in recent years due to the drought.

A young male House Sparrow?

The second image reveals a bird that may be a young male House Sparrow but going on the angle I was to this bird, and the fact the bird had it's head up and to it's left makes it hard to identify. Without seeing it's back or head properly I can only guess these birds are House Sparrows.

In this second photo I was about 12 - 16 feet away from these birds and almost directly underneath them but on a slight angle.

Common Starling or Myna?

Photo taken 29 August 2012, Rouse Street.

I do know there are Common Starlings in Tenterfield, and have heard that Common Mynas exist in the Tenterfield area as well.

Going on the under side of this bird (in the photo) it is going to be a difficult to identify this bird but not impossible.

This bird was photographed next to the old Pederby House on the footpath on Rouse Street, at the top of the power pole.

Some birds, like this one, just don't allow you to get close up photos of them.

Identifying birds is tricky business but there are not many birds in Tenterfield that look like this nor are about the size of a fat Common Starling as this bird is. Personally I think it is a Common Starling but I could be wrong.

Galah Eolophus roseicapillus

Galahs on my front lawn in 2005.

The Galahs here in Tenterfield are one of the bird species that migrated elsewhere when the drought became a bit severe. They used to live in Tenterfield in large flocks and were sometimes seen flocking with Sulphur-crested Cockatoos.

Ocassionally Galahs are seen in Tenterfield but it is rather infrequent. When they are old enough they form a permanent bond with a bird of the opposite gender which become lifelong mating pairs. Galahs live to be about 80 human years of age.

One of the unusual antics of Galahs in Tenterfield is when it rains they love to hang upside down on the power lines. It is quite funny watching them going around in circles like an acrobat on a wire. This behaviour is not seen in Galahs in Whyalla or Mannum (South Australia) so I'm not sure if this is a normal behaviour for the Galah species or if it is a learned behaviour of the Tenterfield galahs.

I don't know about Galahs elsewhere in Australia but in Tenterfield these birds tend to go beserk and fly about chasing each other at full speed. I have seen them ocassionally dive bombing passing cars for the fun of it and sometimes even chasing other birds. When chasing other Galahs or other birds they do so roughly 20-30 feet off the ground half the time. Other times they chase each other at a higher altitude. Galahs are quite the silly bird, do not fear anything, and always appear to be having fun.

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Cacatua galerita

An old photo of a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
taken in Tenterfield eating something in the grass.

Sulphur-crested Cockatoos are large, noisy birds that do everything in large flocks. There used to be large numbers of them in Tenterfield but as the rainfall disappeared so too did these birds. They began to return to Tenterfield just 2-4 years ago on a rather infrequent basis. This year, specifically near the beginning of August, has brought larger numbers of them back to Tenterfield in winter despite the harsh drought conditions.

They are seen from about 4pm onwards flying from stands of trees to other stands of trees, often flying across large open spaces to get to the next lot of trees. They arrive in Tenterfield from an unknown west direction, and head straight for the Jubilee Park area where there are lots of tall trees.

Sulphur-crested Cockatoos do not appear to roost in Tenterfield itself anymore but travel through Tenterfield to find food (nuts, seeds, etc) and water. Most nights you can see them flying off in the direction of the Tenterfield Dam which is in a south-east direction of the main CBD.

Sulphur-crested Cockatoos are always on the move, eating what they can then moving on again.

Crested Pigeon nesting

Crested Pigeon approaching it's nest and keeping an
eye on me. Photo taken 24 August 2012.

The Crested Pigeon is one of my favourite birds because it is so colourful and such an easy going bird. I love the sound it makes but this species is not as common as the Australian King Parrot or even the Australian Wood Duck. Its numbers are very low in Tenterfield. All pigeon species are hunted extensively by birds of prey in Tenterfield, and their numbers have dwindled to almost zero over the years.

Where I live there is just one pair of Crested Pigeons and currently they are nesting. They started nesting about 2 weeks ago. I kept still and the pigeon came down from the roof top and landed in the bushes about 10 feet from where I was standing. I managed to get this photo of the bird before it went to it's nest. Once in it's nest it started cooing like crazy, so I video taped the sound it was making. Even though you cannot see the bird in the video I only really wanted to record the sound it was making and nothing else. I stopped the video recording short as the Crested Pigeon was cooing for about an hour before it flew out of the nest and went elsewhere.


My apologies for the terrible sound quality on this video. The wind was blowing strongly yesterday and I was in the middle of doing something when this video was taken.

Double-barred Finches sitting on branches

Just when I thought my day couldn't get any better I came across these Double-barred Finches sitting on a bush's branches. Filming them is difficult as they are really small birds and I couldn't see them in the digital camera's view screen. I pointed and guessed where the birds were. After this video I took some photos of them which turned out better than expected.


I had to zoom right in to get these photos. I was about 8 feet from the birds. Nine feet seems to be their "comfort zone". As they were fluttering about so much I had to make a guess at how many of these birds there were in the bush's branches - my guess is there were 8-10 of them.

Click on the images to enlarge them.