Blog Archives
The tranquil parrot: Glossy-black Cockatoos
Of all the various types of cockatoos that we get in our area of Australia, the Glossy-blacks are by far the most restful to be with. When they chatter to each other, their call is a restful croon. They seem to take life easy, with few sudden moves. Watch this one going with the flow while the wind tosses her perch back and forth:
Casuarina seeds are just about the only food that Glossy-black Cockatoos eat. I usually find the birds by the comfortable munching noises that they make, rather than the noisy fuss that other types of cockatoos are fond of making!
This family of three birds has been visiting the Casuarina trees beside one of my current favourite bush walks.
I took these pictures over the period of a week.
It’s interesting that I almost always see these birds in groups of three, most likely an adult male and female, and a juvenile. The bird with yellow around her head is the female of the group. I think this one is the adult male:
Check out some previous sightings of these gorgeous birds.
Common name: Glossy Black-Cockatoo
Scientific name: Calyptorhynchus lathami
Approximate length: 50cm
Date spotted: 23-27 September 2024 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam Park, near Sydney: 33°46’16.4″S 151°14’30.9″E
Did the big scary lizard make the Mudlarks abandon their nest?
For a few weeks now, I’ve been watching a pair of Mudlarks building their nest. In fact, they’ve built two nests. The first one looked good and solid from my vantage point, far away and down at ground level. But a couple of days after they’d finished it, they abandoned it and started a new one higher up in the same tree.
Mudlarks, also called Magpie-larks or Peewees, build neat round nests that are basically bowls made of mud. This video shows a male Mudlark collecting mud and reeds at the water’s edge. When he has a good collection, he flies off towards the nest that he and his mate are constructing. As the bird flies, a couple of Kookaburras start cackling, and one of the Mudlarks gives its distinctive call: “pee-wee pee-wee pee-wee”.
Here’s the male Mudlark on mud collection duty:
The next video shows the first nest under construction. The bird prods and pushes mud into the walls of the nest, then sits flat and wiggles its tail end to shape the nest.
As well as building walls, nest construction also involves sitting on the nest and wiggling back and forth to get the shape right:
The nest was looking good, I thought. But several days later, a decision is made. The birds abandon their first attempt and start a new nest, higher up in the same tree:
They’ve chosen a lovely spot, at the edge of Manly Dam. The next video shows one of the birds building the second nest. The second bird arrives with a beak-ful of mud, and takes over construction. The video then zooms out and in again to show the first nest on a lower branch, then zooms out further to show the dam and some of the neighbours (a Little Black Cormorant and a Great Egret).
Aside from the occasional noisy cockatoo, the neighbours are quiet for the most part — like this Great Egret:
And a few water dragons:
But the park does get quite busy over the weekend. Families hold picnics nearby, and children paddle in canoes. Perhaps the birds moved higher to avoid the weekend disturbance.
Perhaps the first nest didn’t meet quality assurance checks. Or perhaps the two parents-to-be spotted the large, scary intruder in the neighbourhood: a Lace Monitor lizard. I took this video of the lizard prowling around the tree where both nests are. Lace Monitors eat eggs and baby birds, and are very good at climbing trees. The Mudlarks’ second nest is higher in the tree and on thinner branches, which would make it much more difficult for the lizard to reach.
Lace Monitors are the second-largest lizards in Australia. They measure 1.5 to 2 metres long — longer than I am tall, and their hands are as big as mine! Here’s a close-up of the Lace Monitor on the move:
When I got too close with my camera, the lizard crouched down and went into stealth mode:
The Mudlarks are still sitting happily on their new nest. Here’s the male:
And here’s the female:
Good luck to them and their new family!
Common name: Magpie-lark, also called a Peewee or a Mudlark
Scientific name: Grallina cyanoleuca
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: August to September 2024 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia
Those dinosaur birds are back for the summer: Channel-billed Cuckoos
Channel-billed Cuckoos are large, strange-looking birds with red eyes, a large canoe-shaped beak, and a strangely apologetic way of moving around. These cuckoos migrate to Australia’s south-eastern coast in the warmer months, and they’ve just arrived for this year’s summer.
When provoked, Channel-billed Cuckoo’s make a reptilian hissing noise. With their red eyes and fierce beaks, and the prehistoric way that they move, they remind me that their ancestors were dinosaurs.
Like many other cuckoos, these birds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, such as Currawongs, and leave the raising of their chicks to the adoptive parents.
A Channel-billed Cuckoo’s life is not a peaceful one. Several other species do their best to chase the cuckoos out of the neighbourhood, to prevent them from hi-jacking nests. In this video, the cuckoo ducks the persistent swooping of Noisy Miners (hint: set the video quality to high definition for best viewing):
You can find out more about these birds in my other posts about cuckoos.
Common name: Channel-billed Cuckoo
Scientific name: Scythrops novaehollandiae
Approximate length: 58-65 cm
Date spotted: 22 September 2024 (spring)
Location: Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia
My first Black-fronted Dotterels
Wandering the paths of Manly Dam reserve a couple of days ago, I met a fellow birdwatcher. He showed me some pictures of a bird that he’d seen, and asked me if I knew what it was. I didn’t, which of course was gratifying to both of us. Something new! I wandered along to the rocks where he’d seen the bird. Sure enough, two pretty little waterbirds dashed back and forth along the water’s edge, poking their beaks into the green sludge on the rocks. I managed to photograph one of them (though I’m not sure it’s always the same bird in these photos).
I wondered if it was some type of stilt, but the beak and legs weren’t long enough. My fellow birdwatcher had suggested it was a juvenile plover.
The bird had a distinctive V-shaped black marking on its chest.
Consultation of my bird book revealed that these are Black-fronted Dotterels. They’re a type of plover. I heard them make their call, a series of short pips. Evidently they’re common and widespread, though I’ve not seen them in my area before.
Common name: Black-fronted Dotterel
Scientific name: Charadrius (Elseyornis) melanops
Approximate length: 16-18 cm
Date spotted: 22 September 2024 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’31.1″S 151°14’47.9″E
Pretty yellow robin
An Eastern Yellow Robin paused for a few seconds on a nearby branch. I grabbed the chance to take a snap:
Common name: Eastern Yellow Robin
Scientific name: Eopsaltria australis
Approximate length: 15 cm
Date spotted: 17 September 2024 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’23.8″S 151°14’39.8″E
Masleep! Or, sleepy Pelican contortions
Early this morning, a pelican dozed on the banks of Manly Dam:
I’ve never seen a pelican asleep before. It looked a bit weird and back-to-front.
At one stage, the pelican decided a yawn was in order:
That pesky pouch beneath its beak got a bit tangled and inside-out:
Once that mess was sorted, the pelican manoeuvred its beak sideways onto its back:
With the beak nicely pointed straight down its back, the bird folded its wings over the beak. A bit like a bat, but the right way up!
Optimal sleeping position achieved:
Here’s the same bird, awake and looking as well put together as a pelican can:
It’s not often that you see a pelican at Manly Dam. I’m pretty sure this is a first for me, though I’ve seen them often on the beaches around Sydney.
Common name: Australian Pelican
Scientific name: Pelecanus conspicillatus
Approximate length: 170 cm
Approximate wingspan: 2.5m
Date spotted: 9 September 2024 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’31.2″S 151°14’46.6″E
Call of the Sacred Kingfisher
Ever wondered what a kingfisher sounds like? Well, you’ll know after watching this video, for a Sacred Kingfisher anyway. The call is a series of chirps, all on more or less the same note. Not very exciting really, for such a pretty bird! You hear them mostly around breeding time, when the calls can be quite insistent.
At the start of the video, you see and hear the kingfisher calling. The camera then zooms out to show the surroundings, including a Great Egret, a Darter, and a Coot. The scene is set at Manly Dam in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
Set the video settings to HD for best results:
Despite their name, these kingfishers don’t often eat fish! Instead, they prey on small reptiles and large insects, and occasional crustaceans from the water’s edge.
Common name: Sacred Kingfisher
Scientific name: Todiramphus sanctus
Length: 20-23 cm
Date spotted: 8 September 2024 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 3°46’31.2″S 151°14’46.6″E
Looking great!
These two Great Cormorants were chilling at Manly Dam, in Sydney’s Northern Beaches. I didn’t realise how pretty their wing feathers are until I saw them through the camera zoom.
The first bird’s image is slightly spoiled by the bit of fluff on its nose, but check out those clear turquoise eyes and white-and-yellow face markings:
The second bird has no fluff problems, and stands proud:
Common name: Great Cormorant
Scientific name: Phalacrocorax carbo
Approximate length: 85 cm; wing span 1.5 m
Date spotted: 6 September 2024 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’34.5″S 151°14’50.5″E
White-necked Herons in Sydney’s Northern Beaches
Yesterday, walking at the north western end of Manly Dam, I saw four large water birds flying high above the trees. Here are two of them:
Intrigued, I followed them around the corner where, luckily, they landed high in a tree. I managed to photograph two of them, before they took off again:
They’re White-necked Herons! This is my first sighting of these birds. They’re large and impressive, with those long legs and undertaker stance. The bird on the left has a misplaced feather that, combined with the reddish colouring on its wing tips, looks a little painful.
The birds were very high up, in the furthermost tree in this picture (though they had gone by the time I took the photo):
The left-most bird turned around at one stage, giving us a nice view of the spots running down its chest and the reddish marking at the top of its wings:
Another pose of the same bird:
This is the right-hand bird, looking altogether sleeker and fiercer:
It’s exciting to see such large, impressive visitors at Manly Dam!
Common name: White-necked Heron
Scientific name: Ardea pacifica
Approximate length: 75-105 cm
Date spotted: 2 September 2024 (spring)
Location: Manly Creek in Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’20.0″S 151°14’30.6″E
Currawong crazy hour
An excited group of currawongs made our backyard the centre of their activity yesterday afternoon. The commotion lasted at least half an hour. Birds dashed back and forth, calling and flying noisily past each other. Parents of young children will sympathise with the term “crazy hour”, sometimes called the “witching hour”, in late afternoon — it seems to apply to currawongs too!
Common name: Pied Currawong
Scientific name: Strepera graculina
Approximate length: 45 cm
Date spotted: 31 August 2024 (end of winter)
Location: Allambie Heights, north of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Sydney Birder 