Gregory's gallery (3)
Portraits of birds taken in and around Oaky. Please note that thumbnails link to large files. Chris has written notes about each of the local birds and these follow the thumbnails.
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Spotted Partelote |
Spotted Quail Thrush
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Superb Fairy Wren |
Tawny Frogmouth |
Varied Sittella |
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Variegated Fairywren |
Wedge-tailed Eagle |
White-browed Scrubwren |
White-throated Needletail |
Yellow Rumped Thornbill |
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Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo |
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos in flight |
Notes
Spotted Partalote
A tiny pretty bird, rarely seen on the ground or low down in the trees.
It does have a distinctive tinkling voice that once heard will help find them.
Common around Oaky.
Spotted Quail Thrush
Classified as a rare bird, this puts it in company of maybe ten birds
around Australia having only a couple of thousand pairs left in the wild. Found
at altitude, on the ground, in dry forest areas. They are rare but I have seen
them on the road up from Jenolan Caves and a pair on the track only 50 meters
from Oaky. Note the camouflage.
Superb Fairy-wren
Common and this male is resplendent in his summer breeding plumage. Poor
flyers they feed in the open but stay close to undergrowth. The female is
recognized as the most promiscuous female bird on the planet, regularly mating
with 8+ partners. I am not sure from an evolutionary perspective why some birds
mate for life (Parrots and Crows) and some shop around. I guess it takes all
sorts.
Tawny Frogmouth
Common but difficult to spot during the day as they freeze and look just
like a branch of the tree they roost on.
Varied Sittella
An active little bird and a tree creeper found pecking on the bark of
trees in its search for grubs.
Variegated Fairy-wren
Similar to the Superb Fairy although I don’t think the female puts out
as much.
Wedge-tailed Eagle
A magnificent eagle and Australia’s largest raptor. In fact the third
largest eagle worldwide. Just shaded by North America’s Bald Eagle and Africa’s
Marshal Eagle. This one was photographed riding a thermal near Oaky.
White-browed Scrubwren
Another LBJ. If you hear sounds from the undergrowth like a machine gun
or footy rattle it will almost certainly be on of these little jobbies.
White-throated Needletail
A magnificent aerialist and summer migrant from N. Asia. Seen at 2000m
above the Aust. Alps clocking speeds of 130 kph. A large Swift with crescent wings
and fine, short needle like feathers at end of tail, often seen in flocks of 30
or more feeding on rising insects during unsettled and thundery weather. Almost
impossible to photograph!
Yellow-rumped Thornbill
The last of the LBJ’s. Yellow rump and often seen feeding
on the ground.
Yellow-tailed Black
Cockatoo
An uncommon but handsome Cockatoo but often seen around Kanangra Walls
in quite large flocks. Distinctive loping flight and mournful, high, keening
“eeeeeee-yaaah” call. Feeds on native pine cones and their grubs. You can see
them most days at Centennial Park in the pines behind the water reservoir,
opposite Ocean Street.