Blog Archives
Black Swans calling
Black swans are native to New South Wales, Australia. This morning I saw four of them swimming amongst the other water birds.
Two of them were calling to each other and raising their necks up and down in a stately dance. They make a slightly funny, bugling call, a bit like a child’s party tooter, as you can hear in this video:
Common name: Black Swan
Scientific name: Cygnus atratus
Approximate length: 120 cm
Date spotted: 27 December 2014
Season: Summer
Location: Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia
Latitude/longitude: 33°46’58.4″S 151°15’18.6″E
White-Faced Heron at Long Reef Headland, NSW
A White-Faced Heron tiptoes across the bizarre landscape of Long Reef Headland on the New South Wales coast of Australia. The bird shakes the seaweed with its toes, dislodging worms and small fish which it then eats.
Here’s a still photo:
Common name: White-Faced Heron
Scientific name: Ardea novaehollandiae
Approximate length: 70 cm
Date spotted: 23 March 2014
Season: Late Summer
Location: Long Reef Headland, New South Wales, Australia
Latitude/longitude: 33°44’15.2″S, 151°18’44.1″E
Swamphens and Moorhens at Manly Dam
Purple Swamphens and Dusky Moorhens look similar, but are quite easy to tell apart once you’ve seen them together. Purple Swamphens are altogether showier: bigger, with brighter colours, and a more confident way of tackling the world. Dusky moorhens are smaller, and move in short dashes, accompanied by a lot of jerking of the head and tail. They almost seem to apologise for their presence. The Purple Swamphen’s beak is entirely red, whereas the Dusky Moorhen has a yellow tip to its beak.
I spotted both birds on the same patch of water at Manly Dam. First, a Purple Swamphen:
Here’s a close-up of those amazing feet, shot when the bird obligingly came up on shore close by me:
Common name: Purple Swamphen
Scientific name: Porphyrio porphyrio
Approximate length: 50 cm
Date spotted: 29 December 2013
Season: Summer
Location: Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia
Latitude/longitude: -33.776626,151.246762
Next, a Dusky Moorhen:
Here’s a nice still of the moorhen sharing the shot with a water lily:
Common name: Dusky Moorhen
Scientific name: Gallinula tenebrosa
Approximate length: 40 cm
Date spotted: 29 December 2013
Season: Summer
Location: Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia
Latitude/longitude: -33.776626,151.246762
Sydney Birder 