White-winged Trillers

Last weekend I was out west helping Mark Clayton and several other bird-banders catch a variety of birds with mist-nets at Charcoal Tank Nature Reserve, West Wyalong, New South Wales. The species we caught most of was the White-winged Triller Lalage sueurii, an interesting species as the male and female have different plumages and when young or not breeding the males resemble the females. Which makes it all very tricky when one has to identify, age and sex each bird. I have pulled several images of various birds in these plumages and give a few pointers for identifying them. Although it is Spring, the birds were in flocks on passage and in all sorts of plumages, pre-breeding.

Adult male in breeding plumage
Pied, with a fully grey rump and all black bill

Same adult male

Adult female in breeding plumage
Light tawny body feathers, with fully grey rump
and a dark bill with a pale base to the lower mandible
tips to the primary coverts are cinnamon coloured

Immature female
Pale brown body feathers with a scalloped grey rump
tips of the primary coverts are whitish

Immature male
The bill resembles those of the females,
but it is beginning to grow dark adult male primaries
scalloped rump

 

Adult male in non-breeding plumage
The body feathers are pale brown, the bill is dull black with no distinct pale base to the lower mandible, the rump is scalloped grey, the feathers having buff tips

Bird faces

White-winged Chough

I have added a few more images of bird faces to my website portfolio. These were all taken quickly with high-speed image capture while others were banding the birds, and they were immediately released afterwards. This gives an opportunity to see birds face-on, which is unusual when they are free, walking, perching or flying. There is such a variety of faces. 

Peaceful Dove

Laughing Kookaburra

Dedication and Commitment

This male frogmouth has now been sitting on his nest for ten weeks. Unfortunately he must be covering infertile eggs as the normal incubation period is about four weeks. I don't know how many eggs he has, but it seems particularly unfortunate as he is in a relationship with two females, as he has been for the past two years when they have raised three and two chicks. I haven't had a camera up at the nest to see which birds are doing what proportion of the night-time incubation, but hopefully they will give up on the eggs soon and they can all get on, and build themselves up back into condition. There was another pair which incubated a dud egg last year (after losing a partly-developed egg over the side of the nest early on) and they didn't give up until the end of November.

Colour-banded frogmouth update

The colour-banded Tawny Frogmouth which I found earlier this year is still alive and well. However, since the last posting on her, and as many people have asked for an update, I checked on her again today.

The first nesting attempt she and her partner made failed, when the eggs were predated - probably by a possum. However, as there is no evidence the case is still open. That was two weeks ago, and now they have moved to a different nest site, using an old Pied Currawong nest. Hopefully, this attempt will be more successful.

The Tawny Frogmouth chicks have fledged

To watch a video of the chicks about to fledge click here 

(approx. 4min., 10 Mb)

The Tawny Frogmouth chicks which featured in the previous videos have now fledged. On the night of the 29th October, under a big fat full moon, they emerged from under the adult male who had been covering them all day. They quickly scrambled along the nest branch and seemed so, so pleased to be able to move around in the dark. There was lots of wing-stretching and flapping and eventually the eldest took a short 'first-flight' across to another branch. As the light dimmed, the magpies and currawongs finished their dusk chorus. Then all that could be heard was the hoarse coughing and wheezing that the chicks made as they jostled for position or begged for food whenever an adult flew in with a morsel of prey (still unidentified).

To watch a video of the frogmouths at dawn click here

(approx. 2min., 5Mb)

By dawn, there was only one chick left at the nest and the male flew in to protect it as the sun cast the first pink beams onto the birds. The other two chicks were sitting on a branch below the camera, safe, next to the female. Frogmouths incubate their eggs as soon as the first one is laid, so the youngest one was about two days younger and less developed than the others. But it would be gone the next night. All the while the other local birds were chattering and whistling in their dawn chorus.