Young Shufflewing being fed
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes are often called Shufflewings, because they flip their wings up and down a little each time they land. I hear the birds calling often while walking in the bush, and see them sometimes too. Usually, though, they’re high in the treetops and difficult to spot. It’s been a long-time ambition of mine to catch a video of one doing the wing-shuffle.
Today was my lucky day. Not only did I film the wing-shuffle of an adult Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, but I also saw a juvenile being fed by adults. The birds were quite low down in a Casuarina tree, probably because that’s where the youngster landed after emerging from its nest.
In the first video, an adult bird lands next to the youngster and feeds it a parcel of food before flying off to a higher branch. The adult sits up high for a while, holding another tasty morsel in its beak. Adult and child trill softly to each other. The adult then drops down and feeds the little one again. When it lands on another branch, it does one of its characteristic wing-shuffles.
The second video starts with an adult bird carrying some food in its beak. The bird visits the youngster, passes over the food and hangs around for a short time, then flies off. The youngster takes some time to swallow the food, while gazing around and calling for the next morsel.
Here’s a still picture of the young bird:
The youngster again, from a different angle:
Here’s the adult, posed neatly against a blue sky:
Despite their name, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes aren’t shrikes, nor even cuckoos. Evidently they acquired the name because their beaks have the same hooked end as a shrike’s and their feathers have similar patterns to some cuckoos.
These are beautiful, graceful birds to see and hear. I’ve posted descriptions of other Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes that I’ve spotted over time.
Common name: Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, also called a Shufflewing
Scientific name: Coracina novaehollandiae
Approximate length: 35 cm
Date spotted: 22 December 2023 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’53.2″S 151°15’08.0″E
White-winged Triller at Lake Lyell
A first recorded sighting for me, this White-winged Triller perched at the top of a bare branch long enough for me to photograph it:
White-winged Trillers are migrants to southern parts of Australia, arriving in spring.
I spotted the bird while camping at Lake Lyell, a lovely spot near Lithgow west of Sydney. The bird had perched very high up and quite far away, so my camera zoom was working at its max. The next shot is fuzzy, but does give a good idea of the grey-white colour of the bird’s back:
Common name: White-winged Triller
Scientific name: Lalage tricolor (suerii)
Approximate length: 16-19cm
Date spotted: 3 December 2023 (summer)
Location: Lake Lyell, New South Wales, Australia: 33°31’14.2″S 150°04’37.9″E
Interestingly, at first I thought the bird might be a Grey-crowned Babbler, because at the time when I saw it, there was also a very intriguing cackling sound. You can hear a Grey-crowned Babbler on Graeme Chapman’s site. I wasn’t sure, because I thought I’d also seen some birds of softer grey colours, flying lower down in the forest. And in fact, I’ve never identified a Babbler, and I’ve heard the same intriguing call several times in the past, at the same time as seeing birds of the more stark black and white colouring of the White-winged Triller. So, maybe the Triller and the Babbler hang out together a lot!
Next step: Photograph a Babbler, along with a sound track of that eerily beautiful call.
Eastern Spinebill all fluffed up
Usually, Eastern Spinebills look sleek and well groomed. This one seems to be having a bit of an off day.
Common name: Eastern Spinebill
Scientific name: Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris
Approximate length: 16cm
Date spotted: 19 November 2023 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’23.8″S 151°14’38.2″E
Bubble birth
Raindrops falling from a tree into a puddle
Each one prompting the birth of a bubble
Background sounds: At the start of the video, a Masked Lapwing squawks in invisible indignation. A Suphur-crested Cockatoo continues the complaint. Noisy Miners warble their comments interspersed with scoldings. A Currawong carols a short reply.
A bubble reflects the branches that prompted its birth:
White-cheeked Honeyeater enjoying the spring blossoms
A White-cheeked Honeyeater peeks out from a flower-covered bush. The bird is mostly black and white, but you can just make out some of the yellow markings on its wings and tail:
If you have trouble distinguishing these little birds from New Holland Honeyeaters, you’re not alone! This one has the black eye and large white cheek patch that identify it as a White-cheeked Honeyeater. A while ago, I took some photos of both birds to compare them.
Common name: White-cheeked Honeyeater
Scientific name: Phylidonyris nigra
Approximate length: 16-19 cm
Date spotted: 20 November 2023 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’30.3″S 151°14’46.6″E
Wombat sick with mange (reported to WIRES)
A few days ago, we were in a remote region of New South Wales near the Abercrombie River National Park. We saw a sick wombat on the side of the road. It was clear that the animal was in a lot of pain, but we didn’t know what was wrong with it.
Here’s a picture of the wombat having a rest after walking up a small incline. (Note: There’s a video later in this post, which can be distressing to watch. However, it shows that the wombat has a lot of energy and is eating well.)
We passed the spot in the car, then turned round and went back to see if there was anything we could do to help. At first we thought maybe the animal had been hit by a car, because it was having obvious difficulty walking. It was eating well, which we took to be a good sign.
I didn’t get too close, because wombats are wild animals and deserve respect. The zoom on my camera was very useful in showing the animal’s condition.
I’d heard that a disease called mange is currently causing many wombats to fall ill, and I wondered if mange was the problem for this poor creature. But at that stage I didn’t know much about the condition.
We took some photos, then as soon as we had mobile service, we lodged an online report with WIRES, the Australian Wildlife Rescue Organization. We were able to give a Google Maps reference of the location of the animal. WIRES phoned us a couple of hours later, and confirmed the details. They then phoned us again the next day for further clarification, at which stage we were able to upload all our photos and the video too. A volunteer from nearby (that is, one and a half hours’ drive away!) would go out to look for the sick animal.
Mange is a skin disease, caused by tiny mites that burrow into the animal’s skin. It’s related to scabies in humans. One of the symptoms is the mass of flies attracted to the animal’s skin, which you can see if you magnify the photo in this post.
Evidently, treating a wombat with mange can be very successful. In most cases, treatment involves installing a flap on the entrance to wombat’s burrow and putting medication on the flap. The wombat thus gets dosed every time it enters and leaves home.
To compare this poor little wombat with a healthy one, take a look at the photos of a parent and baby wombat which we saw some distance away in Abercrombie River National Park.
Thank you and Kudos to Wires. Dealing with the people from WIRES was a very pleasant experience. I very much appreciate the hard work and dedication that the members of the organization and their network of volunteers put into rescuing wildlife in trouble.
Baby wombat in Abercrombie River National Park
In the lovely Abercrombie River National Park this weekend, I was lucky to come across a baby wombat and it’s parent on an early morning stroll. When I came on the scene, the parent nudged the baby towards a hole that led into its burrow. They stood there for a short time, then presumably decided I was safe enough, and continued their amble along the river bank.
Here they are in a lovely still photo. This was just after I saw them, and before I took the video. It looks as if the baby is emerging from another entrance to their burrow, though I didn’t go close enough to see:
I count myself very lucky to have seen these animals, and such lovely healthy ones in such peaceful surroundings. Wombats are found only in Australia. Like many animals here, they’re marsupials. They’re also the koala’s closest relative.
They’re large, as far as burrowing animals go, at up to 1.3 metres in length and weighing more than 35 kilograms. They can also move very fast when they want to, although if you keep well away you’ll usually see them trundling along in a leisurely fashion like these two.
Two Sacred Kingfishers at Manly Dam
A rare treat! This morning I saw two Sacred Kingfishers resting on a clump of dry bush at the edge of Manly Dam. I’ve seen a kingfisher at Manly Dam twice before, both near the dam wall. These two were in a different area, at an inlet on the north west side of the dam.
Before I saw the birds, I’d heard their call, though I didn’t know what it was at the time. It was a fairly high-pitched, insistent sound, uttered in groups of two to four squawks: “kik-kik-kik-kik”.
I think the one on the left might be male, and the one slightly higher up on the right might be female. Females have more green and less blue on their wings than the males do.
Kingfishers are related to kookaburras. (See my earlier posts for pictures of kookaburras.) But whereas Laughing Kookaburras are quite large (47 centimetres from head to tail), Sacred Kingfishers measure only 20 centimetres.
For comparison, here’s a kookaburra from another day:
Back to today’s Sacred Kingfishers: At one stage, both birds turned round to show me the backs of their heads. They look much more like colourful kookaburras now:
The next picture shows the bank of the dam where the birds were sitting. I was on the far side of the inlet. You might just be able to make out one of the kingfishers on the clump of dead bush towards the middle left of the picture. The other kingfisher had been chased away by a Willy Wagtail!
Common name: Sacred Kingfisher
Scientific name: Todiramphus sanctus
Approximate length: 20 cm
Date spotted: Saturday 14 October 2023 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’34.4″S 151°14’48.9″E
Gorgeous male Fairy-wren with glossy blue tail
I took a number of shots of this lovely little Variegated Fairy-wren. As usual, only one of the shots was anywhere near usable. Here it is:
Like many bird names in Australia, the name “fairy-wren” is misleading. These birds aren’t actually wrens. They’re related to honeyeaters and pardalotes.
This one is a male, and in full breeding colour. I haven’t seen such a glossy blue tail before!
Common name: Variegated Fairy-wren
Scientific name: Malurus lamberti
Approximate length: 13 cm
Date spotted: 5 October 2023 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°47’00.6″S 151°15’19.5″E
Song of a Fan-tailed Cuckoo in the forest
Walking through a Eucalyptus forest in eastern Australia, you might be lucky enough to hear a Fan-tailed Cuckoo singing. If you’re even luckier, you might actually spot the bird!
Their song is a pretty, descending trill, often uttered in a series of three trills. This video has the sound of the cuckoo, but I hadn’t yet seen the bird:
After some patient waiting, I managed to find the bird, beak wide open in song:
Unlike most cuckoos in Australia, the Fan-tailed Cuckoos stick around during winter instead of heading north for warmer climes. So you can hear their call throughout the year.
Here’s a frontal shot, giving a better view of the bird’s wide, barred tail and buff-coloured throat:
Adult Fan-tailed Cuckoos have a prominent yellow ring around the eye, as does this one. The bird is sitting huddled down on the end of a branch, perhaps enjoying a patch of sunlight in the cool winter morning:
Common name: Fan-tailed Cuckoo
Scientific name: Cacomantis flabelliformis
Approximate length: 26 cm
Date spotted: 25 August 2023 (winter)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’51.0″S 151°15’00.1″E
Sydney Birder 