Birds at Broadwater

stony creek, trees
Looking across Broadwater Creek from the edge of the camping ground

From the Dalrymple Track, as described on the WQ blog and mentioned in my previous post, I drove the 20 km of gravel road to the Broadwater camping ground in Abergowrie State Forest (National Parks page, Google map), arriving just early enough to set up a tent in daylight. First impressions, confirmed next day, were that it was a typical National Parks camping ground – clean and quiet, well maintained but basic (no power, cold showers). Given that this was the first weekend of school holidays and the place was less than half full, it’s hard to imagine that it’s ever crowded.

There are two signed walks from the camping ground, a Rainforest Walk and a Creek Walk, neither of them very long or at all challenging, and the creek banks are walkable too, giving the visitor access to a good range of bird habitats. And the birds were really the highlight of my stay, and are what this post is about.

In one full day plus an evening and an early morning I saw …

  • Yellow Oriole (aka Green Oriole), Oriolus flavocinctus, on the Rainforest Walk and tall trees in the camp grounds
  • Figbirds, ditto
  • Brown Cuckoo-Dove, Macropygia amboensis, at my own campsite
  • Pale-yellow Robin, Tregellasia capito race nana, campsite
  • Scrub Turkey, ditto
  • Silver-eye, ditto
  • Lovely Fairywren, Malurus amabilis, ditto
  • Northern Fantail, Rhipidura rufiventris, campsite and creek bank
  • Red-browed Finch, Neochmia temporalis, Creek Walk and campsite
  • Peaceful Dove, campsite and elsewhere
  • Kookaburra, heard on Rainforest Walk
  • Sulphur-crested Cockatoos in flight, Rainforest Walk, early morning
  • Kingfisher glimpsed on log in the creek, Rainforest Walk
  • Orange-footed scrub fowl on the Rainforest Walk
  • Topknot Pigeon (Lopholaimus antarcticus) in the top of a dead tree on the Creek Walk

Besides these 15, I probably saw some common species (such as the Magpie-lark) that I didn’t jot down, and I know I heard many others.

I also saw four that I couldn’t identify. One of them was probably a Yellow-spotted Honeyeater (Meliphaga notata) but may have been a Lewin’s Honeyeater (Meliphaga lewinii); another, a similar-sized brownish bird in the rainforest, was most likely also a honeyeater; but the one I would really like to know was a tiny bird, finch size, which visited me while I was waiting for the platypus beside the creek very early on Tuesday morning. It was very beautiful, with a purple back and bright orange underparts, but it was far too small to have been either of the kingfishers which have that coloration. (Edit, 14.11.15: I now think it was a Spectacled Monarch Flycatcher, Monarchus trivirgatus, and that the purple was more of a purple-grey.)

I will post photos of many of the less familiar species here but the Lovely Fairywren deserves a post to himself (see next post).

grey-green finch
Red-browed Finch, adult, in grassland on the Creek Walk
grey-green bird
Red-browed Finch, sub adult (lacks the red eyebrow)
small yellow-bellied bird
Pale-yellow Robin at my camp-site
yellow-brown bird
Yellow Oriole high in a tree beside the Rainforest Walk

The Yellow Orioles were new to me, as their range doesn’t extend quite as far south as Townsville. They are about the same size as our Blue-faced Honeyeater and have a very loud, repetitive call; I heard them for hours before I saw one.

grey bird on branch
Northern Fantail
grey bird diving from branch
The same bird, diving down for prey

Northern Fantails are smaller, greyer, cousins of the familiar Willie-wagtail. There were lots around the camping ground and along the creek, and they let me get very close to watch them perch and swoop, perch and swoop.

brown bird
Brown Cuckoo-Dove

The Brown Cuckoo-dove is the largest bird here, in reality as well as on the screen, at around the size of a Torresian Imperial Pigeon or Magpie.

The Coming of the White Birds

white bird
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo in our poplar gum

Sulphur-crested Cockatoos (Cacatua galerita, Cacatuidae) are common around Townsville in the Dry season but are seen more often in open spaces (e.g. the parkland in and around the Palmetum) than in gardens. They do drop in from time to time, however, announcing their arrival with the most awful – or exhilarating depending on the listener’s attitude – Skraaaak!

That’s what I heard this afternoon, so I wandered out for a look. There were two of them, high in the poplar gum, fossicking around on the dead branches as though hunting for grubs or beetles:

white bird on branch
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo searching for a snack

They didn’t stay long but while I was trying to spot them I finally saw another bird I had been hearing for a couple of days, the Torresian Imperial Pigeon (aka Pied Imperial Pigeon or Nutmeg Pigeon, Ducula spilorrhoa).

Seeing the two species at once has reinforced my feeling that we are beginning to see a change of season, since the pigeons are Wet season migrants. They are here much earlier than they were two years ago. I wonder if the Wet will arrive earlier too?

The phrase I used for the title of my post, The Coming of the White Birds, is borrowed from a much more significant wildlife study: it’s the name of a new documentary movie about a fifty-year study of the migration of these pigeons to their breeding site on North Brook Island, just North of Hinchinbrook Island. For more about the study and the movie, visit this page on the Wildlife Qld blog. To report your own sightings of these beautiful birds, go to PIPwatch.

A tree full of birds

bright green and orange bird
Rainbow Lorikeet

In the few days since my last post the poplar gum has come into full blossom and the birds are loving it. The Rainbow Lorikeets have become regular visitors again, squabbling over the flowers and foraging for insects in the foliage. I’m not sure what the one on my photo is up to – looking for beetles, or perhaps trying to clean his dirty beak?

black bird
Spangled Drongo

Drongos are insectivores but that doesn’t mean they aren’t interested in a flowering tree. What, after all, do so many insects feed on? Nectar, of course, and the tree hosts a good number of bees, flies and butterflies.

brown bird
Juvenile Little Friarbird

I was going to call this post “Patience rewarded” to congratulate myself on getting better photos of the juvenile Little Friarbird I encountered a few days ago. There were at least two of them this time – “this time” being the forty minutes I spent sitting on our front steps yesterday, with my telephoto lens pointing up into the foliage to take all of these pictures.

grey bird
Female Leaden Flycatcher

Leaden Flycatchers are small, quick and quiet. I don’t know how long they frequented our garden before I first spotted one, but I have seen them quite regularly since then. As always, you’re more likely to notice something if you’re on the look-out for it.

Today is officially the first day of Spring. As I’ve said before, the four European seasons don’t have much relevance to our monsoonal tropical climate but we are – just – seeing signs that the season is changing. The humidity is up, and we even had a tiny shower or two overnight; one of our banana plants has decided to put out a bud; and temperatures, particularly overnight, have crept up enough to notice. We don’t expect any real rain until November but we’re now looking forward to our next Wet rather than backward to the one that failed.

A garden full of birds

grey-brown bird
White-gaped Honeyeater

The Dry season always brings more birds to our garden. We’re well into it now, with no rain at all in the last month, and yes, we have birds. This morning, in a total of perhaps an hour in the garden, I saw Helmeted Friarbirds, Blue-faced Honeyeaters, White-gaped Honeyeaters, Brown Honeyeaters, Peaceful Doves and a White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike, all of which are residents or frequent visitors (links take you to previous posts about them).

brown bird in tree
Probably a young Little Friarbird

There’s always something different, however, and today I saw not only a Figbird, an infrequent visitor, but what I think must have been a juvenile Little FriarbirdPhilemon citreogularis.

In some of the other photos I took it is clear that this bird, about the same size as the White-gaped Honeyeater above, has bare grey cheeks and a strong patch of yellow under the chin. Its back was a plain mid-brown. Friarbirds, of course, are members of the Honeyeater family, Melphagidae, so the resemblance to our other honeyeaters does point towards my ID. If that’s really what it was, and I think it is, it was my first sighting of the species in my garden.

I also saw a hawk and a White Ibis this morning but they were so high overhead that I can’t really claim them as “in” my garden. Still, seeing ten species this easily isn’t too bad, and adding to my running total of well over 50 is always pleasing.

Crested Hawk

bird in tree
Forced out into the sunshine

I heard some agitation amongst birds in my garden this morning and, looking for its source, I saw signs of a commotion high inside the canopy of our huge old mango tree. I grabbed my camera and watched until a large grey bird emerged, harassed by a few smaller birds, and perched on the tip of branch. The smaller birds (probably White-gaped Honeyeaters, from their alarm calls, but I didn’t see them clearly) quickly gave up the pursuit, allowing their victim to sit and gaze around.

It was clearly a hawk – the hooked beak and huge golden eyes were giveaway enough – but it was one I have never before seen in the garden and only glimpsed elsewhere. Checking Slaters Field Guide afterwards confirmed its identity as a Crested Hawk or Pacific Baza, Aviceda subcristata. The guide book calls it “uncommon to rare” in coastal regions from NSW around to the Kimberley. It is our only crested hawk, so exact identification is easy, and it is about the size of a magpie or kookaburra. Bazas are supposed to feed on frogs, insects and fruit in the treetops but I think this one must have been threatening the honeyeaters’ nest.

grey bird on twig
Looking out from a high branch

It stayed around for long enough to move higher in the mango tree and back again, looking all around from each vantage point before (perhaps) deciding that eggs were not on the menu and flying off.

bird on mango tree
Hmm … I wonder …

I saw another, larger bird of prey soaring high overhead before I put the camera away. It turned out to be a Brahminy Kite, another very handsome bird with its chestnut wings and white head, but it was too far away for a good shot; here is a photo of one on Birdway.