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| Buff-sided Robin |
While maybe not the most comfortable time to go to the Northern Territory (high temperatures and humidity like a wet blanket. Walk across the room and wring out your shirt), you go when you can. Especially when there are so many birds you've never seen that you can be hard-pressed to find anywhere else. Finches and Fairy-wrens, honeyeaters and parrots...wow, so many birds, so little time, and such *big* distances between them! We decided to go for it, and planned on less camping and more staying in accommodation with air-con and showers. We had a good time and saw lots of fabulous birds. One of the places we *did* camp was the known camping area where the Buff-sided Robins hang out. Sure enough, we heard their call early in the morning, and wow, there they were. We love all the beautiful robins, and these guys did not disappoint us.
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| Bar-Breasted Honeyeater |
A lovely little honeyeater, though a very inconspicuous one. We saw only a very few of these camouflaged well as they fed in the eucalypts.
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| Nancy chasing tides in the mangroves |
We spent time - a LOT of time in an area of mangroves looking for a special White-breasted Whistler (never saw one). But the mangroves are fun as you can only go at low tide and the tides varies 4 meters! We were on the flats one afternoon watching it race across the mudflats - it was really hauling and the thought of fighting through 15' high mangroves in rapidly rising water is enough to give you nightmares! We high-tailed it out of there.
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| Northern Fantail |
Whereas Grey Fantails occur through much of Australia, Northern Fantails, well, are only in Northern Australia. The little light-colored streaks in this bird's breastband are diagnostic.
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| baby Comb-Crested Jacana |
Where's Mom? Look carefully at those toes--if you can first imagine you have a beak, can you then imagine having toes that are almost as long as your head, neck, and beak combined and not stumbling over them while walking on lily-pads on top of the water?!
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| Zitting Cisticola |
We like the name "Zitting Cisticola" so were happy to see these cute little guys hanging out in the grasses. Such a tidy little bird with a clean white bib and pink legs. In Australia, being tidy is a virtue. Dirk and Nancy have been told they are not up to Australian tidy standards. But there are tidy towns that proudly display the signs indicating they have won the highly coveted awards--good on ya! (Really--we do mean that, it's nice to see proud towns! There are ones not so much.....).
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| Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo (Female) |
The Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos are one of the most magnificent Australian birds. The essence of northern Australia is distilled in hearing the far-carrying calls of Red-Tailed Black-Cockatoos, and seeing flocks of these birds fly overhead with their majestic, slow rhythmic wingbeats.
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| Lemon-bellied Flycatcher |
These cute little flycatchers befuddled us the first time we went to the Northern Territory, but this time we were prepared and knew to expect them. They're more closely related to Jacky Winters and those mysterious Yellow-Legged Flycatchers than the more broadly distributed fantail and 'monarch' flycatchers.
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| Grey-Crowned Babbler |
Our favourite babblers--yay! But these ones are a different race (race
rubeculus) than their cousins to the south; apparently we could call them Red-breasted Babblers, but whatever name you choose they still yah-ahoo! to each other just like our good old friends.
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| Hooded Parrot |
Gorgeous parrots that are closely related to the beautiful Golden-Shouldered Parrots of Cape York (and the now-extinct Paradise Parrot). Both of these parrots have tiny localised distributions and specialised habits--like nesting in termite mound cavities. They both also feed on the ground. Incongruously, the most common place people see these parrots is perched on telephone wires in the tiny outback town of Pine Creek.
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| Yellow-tinted Honeyeater |
Another northern honeyeater, these guys are blossom-nomads, always in search of the next flowering tree, so you never know where you'll find them.
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| Rufous Whistler (immature) |
While Rufous and Golden Whistler males have definitively beautiful markings, we're always perplexed when we see female and immature Rufous and Golden Whistlers. There aren't too many other non-descript Australian birds outside of thornbills and songlarks etc. Golden whistler females and immatures are much plainer--brownish with just a little lemon yellow undertail coverts.
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| Pheasant Coucal |
The call of these pretty but oddly clumsy birds are also reminiscent of the outback. Pizzey describes their deep echoing 'coop-coop-coop-coop-coop-coop-coop' call as sounding like 'liquid glugging from a bottle.' We have heard them more than we've seen them, because their call is far-carrying and it is so distinctive. And when we do see them, it's like they're stumbling over themselves as they thrashily try to hasten out of sight.
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| Masked Finch |
Never enough Masked Finches to get tired of seeing them, instead always a delight.
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| Gouldian Finch |
The holy grail of our finch search, we were elated to find Gouldian Finches. We first unexpectedly spotted them at the end of a long, hot, searching day, just as the sun was going down. We were hiking back to the car, happy with who we had seen, but still searching desperately for these little jewel-like birds. Most of the colour had faded from the sky when we saw a row of little birds lined up on the top branch of a scraggly little tree. Lo and behold, it was two brilliant adults and about 8 juveniles not yet showing their colours. We gazed at them as long as we could before darkness fell, then bid them goodnight and safe travels. Happily, we saw a few more heart-stoppingly beautiful Gouldians in another locale, including this black-headed and a less common red-faced. Simply stunning!
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| Purple-crowned Fairy-wren (M) |
Purple-crowned Fairy-wrens have
very local and highly restricted habitat, and we thought we were going to dip on seeing them. Lucky for us, they also have a highly distinctive call and we just happened to catch a riff as we were despondently turning away from a place we thought we might find them. Happily, they revealed themselves and we were able to watch them bouncing around in their bush. (Dirk walked the river bank trying to get a photo while Nancy kept watch for crocs - I think!) All the fairy-wrens are just gorgeous, these are the only ones that have that beautiful purple. We think everything will be ok as long as there are Fairy-wrens in the World.
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| Purple-crowned Fairy-wren (F) |
The female Purple-crowned is also a treat to find. While many of the female fairywrens have muted colors, these girls maintain wonderful patterns and colored tails.
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| Star Finch |
A beautiful little star finch to finish the day. We were thrilled to see them as they are difficult to find. They did not stick around long and I will definately be seeking them out again. Doesn't it look like someone accidentally dipped his face in the cherry pie filling?!
