How to age and sex Rufous Whistlers

Two Rufous Whistlers - but what age and sex are they?
Charcoal Tank, NSW. March 2010

I have recently been in correspondence discussing how to age and sex Rufous Whistlers Pachycephala rufiventris, so considering that they are one of the most widespread bird species in Australia, I thought I should post a simple guide to this dilemma. 

The problem arises from their plumage moult sequence over the first years of their life. For they take three years to attain full adult plumage, and during the first two years, the males and females are alike (to our eyes and criteria so far discerned). Do the birds know which sex each other is, I'm sure they do, so why can't we tell?

This is not a complete description, indeed there might be errors. However, during future banding trips, I hope to photograph birds of known age (from previously banded birds) and note details which will help to further understand how to age and sex these common birds. The page will then be updated as fits new points to consider.  

Juvenile Rufous Whistler
Charcoal Tank, NSW. January 2011

Juvenile (J) Rufous Whistlers are recognisable by their bright yellow gape, the skin at the base of their bill, light-coloured bill and heavily streaked breast. These are usually being closely attended by adult birds.

Eye - dark brown iris

Bill - pale grey upper mandible, pink/yellow/grey lower  

         mandible, orange yellow inside

Breast - buff and heavily streaked

Throat - grey streaked with dark grey

First-year or Immature  Rufous Whistler
Charcoal tank, NSW. Sept 2012

First-year (1 or 2-) birds, or immature, those in the first year of their life have a similar plumage to the juveniles and adult females. Also the sexes are indistinguishable. The orange/yellow inside of the bill is the most diagnostic feature when in the hand, but not so useful in the field. Then, the pale lower mandible below the darker, but not dark black bill is the best feature to look for.

Eye - brown

Bill - dark grey on top mandible, pink/brown lower mandible.

Breast - pale buff streaked with dark grey.

Throat - grey streaked with dark grey/black.

Adult female Rufous Whistler (3+)
Charcoal tank, NSW. Nov. 2012

Adult female (3 or 3+) birds can be recognised by their black bill, dark red iris and lightly streaked breast. Their throat is white rather than grey as in a first-year bird. However, second-year males (2), i.e. those more than one year since hatching, look very similar. Banded birds can be aged with reference to when previously caught, otherwise behaviour is perhaps the only clue to sex in the field. In spring and summer try to determine whether the bird is behaving like a male or female. And beware of this piece of confusing knowledge - male Rufous Whistlers (and females?) can breed in their second year while in sub-adult plumage or in that similar to females.

Eye - dark deep red

Bill - black top, lower, and inside, pale palate

Breast - light rufous streaked with dark grey

Throat - white, streaked with dark grey

Sub-adult male Rufous Whistler
Charcoal tank, NSW. Sept 2012

Second-year, or sub-adult male (2) i.e. those more than two years since hatching, but less than three. These birds show the beginnings of adult male plumage coming through the immature plumage which was similar to that of a female. A dark grey or black breast band spreads across the top of the breast, and black feathers come in around the face. The throat whitens and loses its streaks. And the iris is red, but not as bright as that in an adult male's eye.

Eye - dull red

Bill - black on top, lower and inside, pale palate

Breast - rich rufous, with narrow dark streaks, faint or

             incomplete breast band

Throat - white and lightly streaked, dark feathers

              around face

Adult male Rufous whistler
Charcoal tank, NSW. Sept 2012 

Adult male (3 or 3+) Rufous Whistlers are the easiest to identify, not only to species but to sex. They have a distinctive rufous breast, belly and undertail coverts, a bright white throat and a black breast-band with linked black feathering up the sides of the throat and across the face. The eye is bright red and the bill glossy black.

Eye - rich red iris

Bill - black top, lower and inside

Breast - rich rufous with a black breast-band

Throat - pure white

New Travel Blog

The Lion of St Mark and St Theodore atop columns  in Venice

I have opened a separate blog for my travel photography portfolio as it is too large and diverse to fit neatly into this, my main blog on wildlife and wildplaces. There are some places I visit which are not particularly wild after all. Although I do still tend to see the wild side of things wherever I am. Some of the travel shots I take might be standard in style, but most are from my own personal viewpoint. I like to look for details in colour and form, and powerful compositions.

The first set is on Venice - which is just so photogenic - and I had fun exploring the canals and alleys  for something different in what must be one of the most photographed cities in the world.

So, if you would like to see my travel portfolio please click here.

'Dali' church

Brown Treecreepers: 
How to tell their age and sex

I am building up a portfolio of photographs which show how to age and sex various species of Australian birds. These will be posted in a separate blog, but for now I will upload them to this site and would be grateful for any comments prior to collating them on the new site. The birds have all been caught in mist-nets during long-term field studies, mostly run and organised by Mark Clayton or Richard Allen, to whom I am grateful for their knowledge in confirming the birds' plumage patterns, particularly some of the more tricky species.

As a sample of how I intend to progress with the project, here are a few images to aid people in aging and sexing Brown Treecreepers Climacteris picumnus, following differences in their plumages.

 

Adult (1+) male Brown Treecreeper
04/11/2012, West Wyalong, NSW.

The bird on the left is an adult male, categorised  as 1+, a bird of one or more years old. It is recognisable as an adult by the bold eyestripe and breast markings. The sex is determined by the black freckle spots arranged in a necklace around its throat. The throat's rich buff-orangy colouring is also indicative of age, although more comparative and less useful as a guide if only one bird is seen at a time.

The dark dashes on the breast feathers are the brown edges to the breast feathers which have a wider band of white/buff down the shaft than in those of birds in their first year. Therefore the dashes on the adult birds are farther apart.

First-year (1, juvenile) male Brown Treecreeper
15/12/2013, West Wyalong, NSW.

The bird on the right is a first-year male,
categorised as a 1 juvenile, as it still has folds of skin around the base of its bill, the remains of its juvenile gape.

Again, it has a black necklace of spots. Females, adult and juveniles/first-year birds, have rusty-red spots on their necklace.

First-year birds of both sexes have narrower dark-fleck patterns on their breast feathers. This being due to narrower bands of white along the feather shafts than on adult birds.

The same adult male

When the adult's head is seen from the side, there is a distinct contrast between the prominent eyestripe and buff supercilium, highlighted by a faint white top edge. These markings on the first-year bird are less obvious, as is the contrast between the grey tail tips and the rest of the tail, which in the adult is strong due to the darker upper tail colour. There is a similar difference between the dark primaries and primary coverts of the adult and the grey/brown colour of those of the first-year bird. 

When seen close in the hand, the tips of the adult bird's greater coverts are faded and frayed, while those of the first-year bird are fresh with buff tips. This last point is also a useful diagnostic feature for aging birds of many other species and will be repeated when applicable in further aging and sexing of birds notes as I compile them.

The same  first-year, juvenile.

Yet another Golden Eagle found poisoned on a Scottish grouse moor

A satellite-tagged Golden Eagle lies dead, poisoned on a grouse moor (RSPB Investigations)

Despite assurances from the authorities that the killing of Golden Eagles and other raptors in Scotland is being dealt with, yet another eagle has been found poisoned on an estate managed for grouse shooting. And once again it is in the Angus hills where many other birds have been found killed in recent years.

This bird was satellite-tagged while a fledgling in 2011 in Perthshire, from where it moved to Badenoch and lived freely. However it fatally moved to Angus and died from ingesting poison, probably by eating laced bait deliberately laid out to kill raptors. Roy Dennis of Highland Foundation for Wildlife, who was tracking the bird became aware that the bird had not moved for several days, so alerted the RSPB, whose investigation officers and police found the bird dead at the spot marked by the satellite tag's coordinates. Subsequent analysis showed that the bird had died of poisoning by carbofuran. The bird's movements throughout its short life can be viewed by clicking the link below to the HF for W website.

http://www.roydennis.org/category/golden-eagle/fearnan/

Will this killing ever be stopped? (RSPB Investigations)

The movement of this bird clearly shows how if such a bird is killed on any estate it is not only the local birds which are killed but those from the national population. As the birds are killed, they leave a gap in the habitat, an empty territory which attracts other birds. These are subsequently killed too and so on. How many of the Scottish Population of Golden Eagles are killed per annum. In the Angus hills alone, in the past five years there have been four other Golden Eagles killed by shooting, poison or trapping, as well as seven Common Buzzards and a Red Kite. And a White-tailed Sea-eagle nest tree was felled. These are only the incidents which have been found and reported, how many more go undetected. Regardless of emotions, this behaviour is illegal and should be dealt with. This is a sad refection on the care Scotland shows for what is regarded by the people as its national bird, surely this time, is THE TIME for the government to be seen to rectify this abuse of our widlife.

I ask all my international as well as Scottish readers to write to the Scottish Minister for Environment and let him know how the lack of prosecutions and effective legislation for the protection of raptors in Scotland looks in the world's eyes. His address is Mr Paul Wheelhouse, Minister for Environment and Climate Change. ministerforenvironment@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

And please forward this page to anyone you know you may be interested.

Thank you.

Fearnan, the eagle which was killed as he was when a nestling (Keith Brockie)

Probable protective nesting association between Australasian Figbird, Noisy 
Friarbird and Papuan Frogmouth 

A Papuan Frogmouth sits on its nest set between that of  a pair of Australasian Figbirds with begging chicks on the left, and a partially constructed nest of a Noisy Friarbird up to the right.

I have an article on frogmouth nesting behaviour in the recent edition of  Australian Field Ornithology
(Vol 30: pp126-130).

While on a field trip to Cape York in 2011, I found a Papuan Frogmouth Podargus papuensis sitting on its nest about 15m up a Leichhardt Pine Neolamarckia cadamba by a roadside on the edge of rainforest. The nest was well concealed among epiphytic ferns on one of the lower limbs, and although there have not been many nests of this species described, from experience with the closely related Tawny Frogmouth, I would expect this to be a normal type of nest site.

However, this nest site was intriguing for another reason. The nest was set within one metre of and between those of a pair Australasian Figbirds Sphecotheres vieilloti and a pair of Noisy Friarbirds Philemon corniculatus. It seems that these two other species had deliberately selected to nest close to the frogmouth nest, probably for protection (the frogmouths had well-grown chicks and would have nested first). The much larger frogmouth would be more likely to ward off any potential predators than the passerines themselves. If this was the case, this would be the first recorded example of a frogmouth or any of the caprimulgiformes behaving as the protective species in a nesting association.

The arrow points to the trio of nests set on
and around the angle of the branch