The Yellow-Breasted Boatbill (Machaerirhynchus flaviventer) is a small flycatcher restricted to rainforest habitats in North Queensland. They are found from the Paluma Range north to Cape York. They tend to inhabit the middle storey of rainforests where they forage for food, mostly catching insects whilst in flight. They have a broad bill with long distinctive ‘whiskers’. The male bird has brilliant yellow and black plumage while the female is duller in colour.
From my recent conversations with some of our local bird watchers at Paluma it seems the Yellow-Breasted Boatbill is not commonly sighted at Paluma. This might be because this small bird tends to frequent the mid-high canopy in its search for food, or perhaps they are not locally common in the village?
On Sunday (11 July) I was lucky enough to come across some keen bird watchers and friends (Greg and Michael) who were eagerly photographing this male Boatbill (below) at the Village Green. The bird was flitting in and out of the canopy in the large trees at the western end of the Green. Greg has kindly shared the photographs below. If you haven’t yet seen the Yellow-Breasted Boatbill, keep your eye out next time you visit the Village Green. Just look for a flash of brilliant yellow way up high in the canopy!
Check out that broad bill…..!
Text by Michele Bird and Photographs kindly shared by Greg Calvert
A couple of weeks ago, we were gifted with the rare treat of boobook owls. Boobooks are Australia’s smallest and most widespread owls, and, as with most owls, are seldom seen. In the Hawk Owl family (genus Ninox), these fledglings appear to be the more commonly distributed subspecies, Ninox boobook ssp boobook, rather than the rainforest subspecies of lurida, which is interesting as it means both subspecies must overlap in range here at Paluma.
We had heard both boobook and lesser sooty owls the previous evening, and saw at least one of the adult parent birds very early, from the bedroom window. The photos were taken from the lounge room window. These fledglings were being guarded by an adult bird, who quickly flew into the forest when spotted, but the fledglings stayed put for most of the morning, giving us a glorious opportunity to watch them watching us!
Owls are apex predators in many environments, and are at risk of consuming or accumulating toxins used to control pest species such as insects and rodents. While in Paluma, commercial spraying of pesticide is not a threat to these birds, the indiscriminate use of rodent poison certainly is. We ask all residents to consider live trapping for control of rodents over use of toxic baits. This provides not only the opportunity to identify the trapped animal, and release in a suitable location if one of our valuable endemic species, but also prevents the inevitable leeching of these toxins into our environment. After all, wouldn’t it be nice to have more owls around so that they can control the rodents instead!
Dorothy and Peter Klumpp have kindly shared some photographs from their back verandah. Just recently the Bower’s Shrikethrush (Colluricincla boweri) has moved in and is nesting, literally on the backdoor step. The chosen nesting place is a hanging basket that once held a pot-plant. Peter says that his ineptitude at gardening has finally paid off. The plant died and the birds took the opportunity to make good use of the macrame plant hanger. Of course, we all know that the Klumpps are great gardeners, but in this case they have graduated from green-thumbs to feathered fingers!
One nesting season I had the Bower’s Shrikethrush build a nest in the plastic peg basket hanging from the (undercover) washing line. Colwyn has had the birds return several seasons to also nest in her peg basket on the back verandah.
The Bower’s Shrikethrush is endemic to upland rainforests in the Wet Tropics region. It has been described as “one of the more common plainer birds in the tropical rainforest”. No one who has heard the call of this bird would describe it as plain. Female and male birds are distinguishable in that the female has an eye ring and eyebrow of pale feathers that is lacking in the male. The Bower’s Shrikethrush feeds on insects and their larvae from the mid-canopy and often on the ground.
We look forward to an update on the nesting at the Klumpps and some photos of the new (feathered) grandchildren??!!
Two lightly speckled eggs in the nest.The Bower’s Shrikethrush sitting on eggs. Note the very dead pot plant!
Birds at the back door.
Text by Michele Bird and Photos by Peter & Dorothy Klumpp.
Jan and I are leaving in two weeks to head back to Northern Territory for a few months and have been expecting that this would mean we would miss the mating rituals of the Victoria’s Rifle Bird (Ptiloris victoriae)…..yet again.
But we got lucky on Friday when we came back from shopping in Ingham and barely had time to sit down before a different call from a male VRB made us check out the feed tray and tree fern post out on the verandah.
And there he was, getting right into it … a very early bird by the entries in bird books which list the VRB breeding season as September to January, obviously with male competition for female partners pretty much done and dusted before our usual return to Paluma in late October.
We got lucky, but Mr Riflebird wasn’t so lucky, despite a very intense performance on top of the tree fern.
He started calling with wings upswept while facing the bushes off the verandah where VRBs, Honeyeaters, Catbirds and Satin Bowerbirds queue for the fruit buffet.
Still photos unfortunately don’t show the movements that go with each pose … with wings up, he kept in constant up and down motion by bending his legs while at the same time opening and closing his beak to get the bright yellow gape into the display.
Things were looking good when a female landed on the tree fern just below him and looked up, at which point he dropped his left wing and played some peek-a-boo by hiding his head behind the right wing.
Then the day’s ration of watermelon caught her attention and she dropped to the food tray. While he kept on with his performance she looked up, looked right but eventually swiped left, preferring watermelon to his advances.
He was so intensely focused and hormonal that he paid no attention to me moving around on the verandah to get better camera angles. Light was fading and I had to crank up the ISO to 3000 to get a workable shutter speed.
This morning I went looking for more information about VRB courting and couldn’t find much…except what would seem to be the seminal document on this subject written by Harry Frith and William Cooper and published in Emu, the journal of Birds Australia, now published by CSIRO.
Great abstract online at:- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1071/MU9960102, but if you want to read the whole article online it’ll cost you 50 bucks American… if you want to download that whole issue of Emu that’ll cost you $230 AUD. Universities usually have deals that get their people open access to academic publications but my university contacts couldn’t get free access via JCU or Monash. The hegemony of the ‘big boys’ in academic publishing is a very vexed issue, even for those working in the academy. For the rest of us, bad luck.
But back to the joyful experience of watching this display of unbridled avian lust. In wings-up display, we get to see mauve feathers at the base of the wings and a mauve streak running back from the eye alongside the blue spangled cap. Wow, I said!
What we didn’t get to hear was what Frith and Cooper describe as “a vigorous alternate wing clap display that all but embraces the female with rapidly alternating wing extensions and synchronous jerking of the stiffly rigid head and neck between them at a progressively rapid tempo until copulation.”
Clearly once she swiped left that wasn’t going to happen!
Here’s hoping we get to see a few more displays before we disappear towards the north west for a few months.
Talking with other villagers today the question was asked about the apparently unseasonal courting behaviour … is this just a precocious individual bird or is this another sign of the “new normal” as we see more unseasonal animal behaviour and plant flowering and fruiting?
Love to hear what unusual biological phenomena others are seeing??
Text & Photos by Peter Cooke, with Jan Cooke
Footnote: For those unfamiliar with the phrase “swiping left” Dictionary.com offers this definition: (On the online dating app Tinder) indicates that one finds someone attractive (or unattractive) by moving one’s finger to the right (or left) across an image of them on a touch screen. “I swiped right, but sadly for me, she swiped left”.
Further Information:-
Courtship Display and Mating of Victoria’s Riflebird (Ptiloris victoriae) with Notes on the Courtship Displays of Congeneric Species
“The courtship display and mating of Victoria’s Riflebird (Ptiloris victoriae) are described from numerous hours of direct observations and 117 minutes of videotape. Courtship display is typically performed on the apex of a vertical dead tree trunk stump and consists of three discrete components: Calling with the associated exposure of a bright mouth, a circular wings and gape display and a vigorous alternate wing clap display that all but embraces the female with rapidly alternating wing extensions and synchronous jerking of the stiffly rigid head and neck between them at a progressively rapid tempo until copulation. Subjective observations indicate that in immature, female- and sub-adult male-plumaged males the advertisement call is inferior in power and the courtship displays lacking in synchronisation and coordination of postures and movements. Victoria’s Riflebird courtship is compared with that of congeneric riflebirds and with other sexually dimorphic polygynous birds of paradise and similarities discussed. Contrary to previous views, the courtship display of Victoria’s Riflebird involves a progressive series of specific postures and movements increasing in tempo and leading to copulation. Some of its courtship behaviour is similar to that of other genera in the Paradisaeinae”.
Birdwatchers at Paluma continue to be delighted by the hive of activity amongst the local birdlife during these fine, sunny winter days. Here’s a further selection of birds seen and out and about in the village over recent days by Peter and Jan Cooke.
Golden whistler at Smith Crescent this morning.
Female Satin Bowerbird. When the light’s right the Satin Bowerbirds’ plumage shows such subtle variation. Male Satin Bowerbird.Male Satin Bowerbird.Female Riflebird or young male?Tooth-billed Bowerbird also spotted at Smith’s Crescent today.
Honeyeaters are probably the most seen and most numerous birds in the Paluma village. Lewin’s Honeyeater, Macleay’s Honeyeater and the White-Cheeked Honeyeater are commonly seen. The Yellow Spotted Honeyeater is here also, but it is difficult to distinguish from the look-alike Lewin’s, other than by call. Paluma is also said to be at the southern edge of the range for the Bridled Honeyeater (Bolemoreus frenatus).
Wikipedia says the Bridled Honeyeater is a North Queensland endemic with a range that extends from the Bloomfield-Mt Amos area, south to Mt Spec. Its favoured habitat is subtropical or tropical moist upland forests and subtropical or tropical rainforests, usually above 300 metres. But in winter, it descends to lower forests including mangroves, and can sometimes be seen in more open habitats. It’s said to be mostly solitary and elusive, but when trees are fruiting or flowering they may gather in large, quarrelsome flocks.
Over the past four years of bird watching, Jan and I have seen the Bridled Honeyeater only twice, and not in down-town Paluma. Our observations have been recorded at Paluma Dam and out on Don Battersby’s little rainforest patch on his Hussey Road acreage block. The photographs below were taken at Don’s place in February 2017.
So, although Bridled Honeyeaters are unlikely to be here in winter, it’s surprising we haven’t seen them over four successive wet seasons in and around the village.
We’re wondering what observations others can share about this interesting bird with its bi-coloured beak, bright blue eyes and distinctive white eye markings. Have you seen the Bridled Honeyeater at Paluma?
Whilst it might be winter and a little chilly at Paluma, it hasn’t deterred the local birdlife from getting out and about amongst the village gardens and adjacent rainforest. Paluma is always a great place to do a spot of bird watching. These fine, sunny winter days are ideal for a stroll in the village and the opportunities abound to catch a glimpse of some locally common species. Peter and Jan Cooke have done just that, recently sighting the following birds in their own garden and throughout the village.
Crimson Rosella tucking into the nectar-laden grevillea flower spikes at No. 56 Mt Spec Road. This stunning flower is Grevillea Moonlight, a hybrid of G. banksii and G. whiteana.Another feasting Crimson Rosella, this time enjoying the powder-puff flowers of a red Calliandra. This Eastern Spinebill was up at dawn to enjoy the flowers of Grevillea Firesprite.Recently a pair of Grey Fantails have been cruising up and down Mt Spec Road….perching momentarily and then demonstrating great aerial acrobatics to take insects in flight.
Photos by Peter Cooke. Text by Peter Cooke and Michele Bird.
Macleay’s Honeyeaters are pretty fearless little creatures.
As Jan Cooke stepped onto the deck today to enjoy a morning juice, suddenly she was ‘breakfast bombed’ by one of the cheeky Macleay’s Honeyeaters who pretty much dominate the fruit station. Such is life in downtown Paluma!
Thankfully the scrub turkeys aren’t as bold……..!
Jan Cooke with her very friendly Macleay’s Honeyeater. What’s for breakfast?
A surprise visitor to our verandah in downtown Paluma this morning……a juvenile Nankeen Night Heron. Something different from the usual mob of rifle birds, catbirds and honeyeaters looking to see if we had put any fruit out for them. The ‘NNH’ moved with all the speed of a tired cuscus on the verandah rail when it wasn’t standing stock still. A very naive youngster who didn’t see us as a threat at all and let me approach to within a couple of metres without any sign of alarm. Didn’t mind me taking 100 shots in the low morning light (1/25 @ f8 ISO 1250 on Canon 5DSR). He/she was there at break of day and was still standing looking like it wanted to come inside out of the rain when I sent this post at 0900. Now all I have to do is sort through 100 photos and decide which few to keep!
Most residents at Paluma are avid bird watchers and as the seasons change, so does the variety of bird species that come and go round the village. As winter approaches, many of our favourite species are becoming regular visitors to local gardens and verandahs as they check out what’s on offer at the bird feeder.
Last weekend was a great time for a spot of bird watching, with Jan and Peter Cooke taking up their favourite vantage point on their elevated verandah set adjacent to the rainforest. Some splendid feathered visitors arrived to enjoy the free fruit and easy pickings at the bird feeder.
Below are some of Peter Cooke’s fantastic photos from the verandah. What a way to spend the weekend!
Lewins HoneyeaterA hungry CatbirdFemale Riflebird or a young male Riflebird? Can you tell the difference?A male Riflebird at his iridescent best!
Photos by Peter Cooke & Text by Michele Bird(A ‘Cooked-Bird Collaboration’).
