This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Not that I don’t enjoy seeing new species myself, it’s just that they are an easy target and I am nothing if not lazy and mean spirited. But there is one kind of tick that I genuinely do enjoy, and as I do more and more birding it becomes harder and harder to get; new families.
Honeyeaters are a large bird family (190 species) with a strong presence in Australia. According to the HBW entry for this species, it “has been claimed that loss of native mammals after European settlement created shortage of nesting material, explaining this species’ penchant for taking hair from humans.”
“Saltator” is another one of those “intriguing” names for certain bird species that live in Costa Rica and the Neotropical region. Although in Latin, “saltator” means “jumper”, these birds aren’t doing any kangaroo imitations. I hear this bird singing just about every morning.
A couple of Island races exist on Kangaroo Is. Honeyeaters are an Papuo/Australasian specialty with only one species crossing the Wallace Line west, to Bali. Along with Australian Chats, Wattlebirds, Myzomelas, Friarbirds, etc, they make up 178 species in the family Meliphagidae. and in the Bass Strait.
Chimpanzees and elephants grieve the loss of family and friends, and gorillas hold wakes for the dead. Paul’s family noticed that whenever he was about to have an attack, Tinker would get agitated. Caledonian crows live in small family groups and youngsters learn to fashion and use tools by watching adults.
As usual, birds seem to like these off-the-way places best – eBird lists 337 species based on a little more than just 100 checklists. While the HBW describes the bulbul family as “often rather plain”, I find them usually quite attractive, though in an understated way that may not appeal to the flashiness-seeking HBW authors.
It’s actually a member of the family Artamidae, which includes the woodswallows (not actually swallows), the butcherbirds (not actually shrikes) and the peltops (which actually are peltops, since there are no others). The Australian Magpie is not actually a magpie, a fairly common state of affairs for birds from the colonies.
As you first walk down the paths (or even park) the dominant species is not a bird but Eastern Grey Kangaroos, and lots of them. It wasn’t long before I saw my first family of Superb Fairy-wrens as well as a very noisy Willie Wagtail. First was a family of fast-moving Silvereyes and a Spotted Pardalote.
In the parking area I immediately encountered a pair of Australian Brush-turkeys as well as a new species for me, a Grey-headed Robin. This huge member of the Australian robin family is really tame in this carpark, making it probably the easiest place n the world to see the species (other than the Tableland it is only found in New Guinea).
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 30+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content