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Friday, November 1, 2019

BIRD LIST FOR CLUB OUTING, 08 SEPTEMBER 2019


Highfields Falls: On a windy, but clear, morning, we parked on the “James Byrne” side of the Reserve and were pleased to walk into the forest to beat the wind. Once at the Falls side, we were totally out of the winds. Most of our sightings occurred on this Falls side, where, of course, the birds had access to the trickling stream.
Our bird list for the Highfields Falls Reserve morning: Lorikeet (most likely Scaly-breasted); Red-browed Finch; Grey Fantail; White-naped Honeyeater; Rufous Fantail; Grey Shrike thrush; Eastern Yellow Robin; White-browed Scrubwren; Lewin’s Honeyeater; Variegated Fairy-wren; Golden Whistler; Leaden Flycatcher; Crested Shrike-tit; Galah; Eastern Whipbird; Straw-necked Ibis (flying overhead at the carpark).
Williams Park (middle of the day) list:
(at the Park) Scaly-breasted Lorikeet; Noisy Miner; Crow; Currawong; Magpie; Galah; Tawny Frogmouth; and Jim Ball’s late-arriving King Parrot. (on the creek-side walk) Grey and Rufous Fantails; Common Bronzewing pigeon; Brown Cuckoo-dove (Mike Ford’s sighting); Superb Fairy-wren; Sulphur-crested Cockatoo; heard a whistler (probably golden).
The bird of the day, and it was my sighting, was the Crested Shrike-tit (Falcunculus frontatus). I have only ever seen it a few times, and never here, although Jean photographed it here two years ago, in the creek, a little further above the Falls. There are three races, with our “frontatus” being the most widespread. I was watching the Leaden Flycatcher on a branch over the path when it was “buzzed” by the shrike-tit, which then gave me 15 seconds of excellent viewing. It is a beautiful bird, with strong yellow body markings below, olive on the back and vent, and otherwise grey. The black head and throat patch are most distinctive, with two white stripes across the face, separated by a narrower black stripe through the eye. The crest is, I think, always partly or fully erect – giving it an over-sized “boof-headed” or Mohawk appearance. “Simpson and Day” tells me that “they feed mostly in the upper branches, prising invertebrates from the bark with their robust bills. They give distinctive chuckling calls or drawn-out plaintive whistles.”
I was thrilled with (and Jan Veacock was jealous of) my sighting. Enough said. 

(Report by Ben Gundry)

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