Category: Nature

The distinctive calls of the whip-bird are often heard coming from dense and usually moist habitat, but they are rarely seen out in the open. 

They are generally shy, so it was quite a surprise to see this bird happily foraging amongst leaf litter and fallen tibouchina flowers only metres from the road in downtown Paluma recently. 

Whipbirds are found in dense habitats all the way as far south as eastern Victoria but two sub-species of Psophodes olivaceous are distinguished geographically. 

The sub-species expected here at Paluma is the northern race, sometimes known as the northern whipbird (Psophodes olivaceus lateralis) found in the wet tropics from Townsville to Cooktown. 

The call is usually a duet between the male and female, the male producing the long note and whip crack and female the following notes. 

Whipbirds are monogamous. Breeding occurs from late winter through spring; a loosely built bowl of twigs and sticks lined with softer material such as grasses, located in shrubs or trees less than 3–4 m  above the ground. Several broods may occur in an extended breeding season

The female incubates the eggs and broods the nestlings, though the male helps feed and take a more active role in looking after fledglings for six weeks after leaving the nest. 

The male and female are similar in plumage, so it’s hard to tell which pronouns the bird pictured bird might prefer. 

Photos by Peter Cook. Text gleaned mostly from Wikipedia by Peter Cooke. 

The Spectacled Monarch (Symposiachrus trivirgatus) is a small and colourful songbird with an international range — from Eastern Australia, through New Guinea into the Islands of Indonesia and Timor. 

There are multiple subspecies. In eastern Australia the northern subspecies is albiventris, with melanorrhous further south and gouldii at the southern limit of its range, Port Stephens in New South Wales. 

According to the Australian Bird Guide maps, at Paluma we would expect to find sub-species melanorrhous. The differences between subspecies are somewhat subtle so in Paluma we may be seeing an overlap with the far northern sub-species albiventris. Albiventris is described as having a rufous upper breast sharply defined from more extensive white underparts than melanorrhous and gouldii. 

Males and females are similarly feathered — blue-grey above, with a black face mask that extends across both eyes, rufous (red-orange) breast, white underparts and a black tail with white outer tips. Immature birds lack the black face and have a grey throat. 

As well as subtle changes in plumage the sub-species are distinguished by a variety of songs and calls from rising mellow whistles in the Lesser Sundas to raspier whistled notes in Australia. eBird says that calls vary, but are generally “harsh and unpleasant-sounding buzzes and rattles”.

The eastern Australian sub-species are found in subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical mangrove forests, and subtropical or (as we have here at Paluma) the moist montane forests of the Wet Tropics. 

The Spectacled Monarch is not an easy bird to photograph, stopping only for a few seconds to perch as it makes its way, mostly obscured, amongst dense foliage while foraging for insects below the canopy and on tree trunks or vines.

Google search comes up with several spellings for the scientific name: Birds in Backyards says Symposiarchus trivirgatus, most other sites use Symposiachrus trivirgatus

Photos by Peter Cooke and text gleaned and adapted from Wikipedia, eBird and Birds in Backyards. Location: jungle margin behind #56. 

The Grey-headed Robin (Heteramyias cinereifrons) is a large, plump robin of the Wet Tropics with a range extending north from Paluma to near Cooktown. 

At Paluma it’s often seen along rainforest tracks and margins, usually feeding on or near the ground, scanning leaf litter from an upright perch on tree trunks or low branches before dropping to take its prey. 

Both sexes are olive brown above, with gray crown and breast, stark white throat, and white wing patch, prominent in flight. Its upright stance, large size, intricate plumage, and pale pink legs are distinctive. 

Breeding occurs from August or September to January, with one or two broods per season. The nest is a shallow cup made of bark, grass, and dry leaves. Spider webs are used for binding or filling, and strips of fern and palm for lining; the outside is decorated by dried vegetation. The nest is generally placed in a lawyer vine up to 10 m above the ground. A clutch of one or two eggs is laid. The eggs are buff, cream- or dark greenish-white, and marked with light brown splotches and spots, usually concentrated around the large end, and they measure 26 by 19 mm.

Photos by Peter Cooke and text adapted from Wikipedia and e-bird. 

The grey fantail (Rhipidura albiscapa) has a wide Australian distribution but is also found in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. 

There are five named subpopulations in Australia. At Paluma, we have the eastern Australian subspecies Rhipidura albiscapa keasti, most commonly found along the coast and ranges to our north and south. This population is regarded as sedentary, while most others are migratory or nomadic.

P. a. keasti is distinguished by having the darkest plumage of the grey fantails.

During waking hours, the grey fantails are almost never still. They flit from perch to perch, sometimes on the ground but mostly on the twigs of a tree or any other convenient object, looking out for flying insects. They are able to catch flying insects using intricate acrobatic chases.

The birds are not shy, and will often flit within a few metres of people, especially in forested areas and suburban gardens. In doing so, it is able to catch any small flying insects that may have been disturbed by human activities such as walking or digging.

Most bird species typically build one nest in a breeding season, but grey fantails commonly build more than one nest before egg-laying, and seven nests have been recorded as the highest number in a breeding season.

There is a hypothesis explaining nest abandonment in this species. Abandoned nests could be used to confuse predators. In fact, a large number of abandoned nests exposed on trees are significantly less concealed than nests that eventually received eggs. Grey fantail eggs and fledglings are a favored prey of pied currawongs.

Some of the materials from decoy nests may be used to construct the subsequent breeding nest. They raise several broods per season, usually each of three or four cream eggs, spotted grey and brown. The incubation period is around two weeks, with incubation and feeding duties shared by both parents.

Photographs taken by Peter Cooke in Smith Crescent.
Text is largely an edited version of a Wikipedia entry.

Last year a pair of white cheeked honeyeaters (Phylidonyris niger) nested in the deep cover provided by the straplike leaves of the Lomandra clumps in our backyard at #56.

They’re back again this year in the same place.

We’ve avoided the nest site but from our back deck they can be seen coming and going busily now in early May.

White-cheeked Honeyeaters pair monogamously for the breeding season, with males defending breeding territories that can be held for several years. Males aggressively attack other birds of their own and other species during the breeding season, but not familiar birds such as their own mates, relatives and resident neighbours.

The female builds a cup-shaped nest from twigs, bark, and other plant materials, lined with pieces of flowers (e.g. Banksias, Isopogons).

And as the beak of the nest-building in our photo indicates the nest is kept together with spider web.

The nest is well-concealed in dense foliage or in grass (like Lomandra) below shrubs and ferns or placed low in forked branches of trees or shrubs, often close to the ground. Both parents feed young.

The White-cheeked Honeyeater is endemic to eastern and south-western Australia, ranging from east of the Great Divide in Queensland through coastal New South Wales, becoming scattered south to Jervis Bay. Also in south-western Western Australia and from Perth northwards to Murchison River.

The populations in the east and west are quite unconnected.

The white-cheeked honeyeater looks very similar to the New Holland Honeyeater which can be distinguished by its white eye.

Photos by Peter Cooke and text mostly from Birds in Backyards site.

The e-Bird website describes the Pale-Yellow Robin as “a rotund little robin, olive above, with gray head, yellow underparts, and white around the base of the bill”. 

Our picture illustrates its common feeding behaviour: “Perching on low branches and on the side of tree trunks, from which it drops to the ground to capture prey”— in this case a nice fat worm on the gravel near the Village Green toilets..

Pale-Yellow Robins are very similar in appearance to Eastern Yellow Robins but Pale-yellows are smaller than Eastern Yellows (12 cm in length as opposed to 15) and have morewhite around the beak and throat. The Eastern Yellows have black legs, more vibrant yellow plumage and a longer tail. 

There are two sub-species of Pale-Yellow Robin. The nominate and southern race is Tregellasia capito and the northern race is distinguished by addition of a sub-species name nana — latin for dwarf. 

The northern sub-species is found from near Cooktown to Paluma and the southern ones are found between Barrington Tops in NSW to the Mary River in Queensland. 

Pale yellow Robins are sedentary and favour rainforests and dense eucalypt forests, particularly where lawyer vine is found. 

They use the prickly lawyer vine (Calamus muelleri) as nesting material and as a nest site. The nest may be anywhere up to 10 m above the ground, though often much lower. Breeding season is July to December with one, or sometimes two, broods. A clutch of 2 oval eggs, measuring 20 by 15 millimetres (0.79 in × 0.59 in), is laid. They are pale green, splotched with brownish marks. 

Smith Crescent has a great variety of rainforest species, some regulars and others occasional. Jan Cooke saw a Yellow Breasted Boat bill there last week and a few years back a Rhodesian birder got good shots of a Paradise Kingfisher well above its usual altitude. .

Photograph by Peter Cooke.
Text assembled by PC from various plagiarised sources.