201. More old and new

Dollarbird

Some recent jaunts yielded more cool birds.  Dollar birds migrate south from PNG for the summer.  They're called Dollarbirds because when they fly you can see distinct blue-white spots underneath their wings that could be construed as 'dollar coins.'  We think this bird is a juvenile, because his upper mandible is still brown.  Adults have bright orange bills.

Sacred Kingfisher

Channel-billed Cuckoo

Carpet Python

Sacred Kingfishers are our most commonly seen kingfisher, other than the Kookaburra.  We think this bird is a male, because he has lots of buffy plumage.  Females are whiter.  Despite their name, they, like most of the kingfishers in Australia, are tree kingfishers (Family Halcyonidae).  The forage mainly over land.  In comparison, Autralia has two river kingfishers (Family Alcedinidae), the beautiful Azure and Little Kingfishers.







Channel-billed Cuckoos also are summer migrants from PNG (Papua New Guinea), and are sometimes called 'Stormbirds' along with the Common Koel, presumedly because storms occur primarily in the summer when they are here.  Like other cuckoos, this species is a brood-parasite, their real parents' job is done at egg laying time.  Eggs are laid in a 'host' bird nest, with resident eggs being removed at the same time.  This is a juvenile bird, insistently begging for food from his foster parents, a pair of puzzled-looking Torresian crows who are noticeably smaller than their 'foster child.'  I can just hear the male crow saying 'WTF, who did YOU sleep with to get this big kid with the funny-looking nose?!'


This pretty 1-1/2 m python was wrapped up in a tree in the D'Aguilar Forest.  Dirk spotted him on our rainforest walk.  Luckily, he was up there and we were down here, but we didn't get TOO close, in case he decided to drop on us!





This little Grebe was a surprise siting at the local Hinterland Regional Park during our Great Backyard Bird Count.  We've never seen them there, before.  You'll notice the raindrops on the water?  Four days of dawn rain dampened our spirits, but we still managed to get enough surveys in to put Australia as the number 5 global contributor for surveys!!  (We did 10% of them--5 out of 50!  Birdwatchers in the USA did something like 28,000 last time I looked...)  But I digress--this pair of Grebes were building a nest.  A soggy looking one, but we hope they successfully nest!!

Australasian Grebe

Australasian Grebe

Slightly grumpier looking, tired of being spied upon?  We were trying to get good pics to submit to the photo contest.
















I've gone to the dark side...An iPhone!  But it's been great, using the new ANZ birdlog app to keep talleys of my bird surveys in the field!!  Easy submittal to eBird, I'm a convert!!

Birdlog app