On Fri, 4 Apr 1997, John Leonard wrote:
> In Australia there is one species of megapode (Malleefowl) found in the band
> of mallee across the south of the continent and two species (Scrub Turkey
> and Orange-footed Scrubfowl) found in rainforest and adjacent habitats down
> the east coast. However there is not, and hasn't been in Recent times, a
> species inhabiting dry schlerophyll and woodland down the eastern side of
> the continent. Why not? Surely if the mallee can support a species, then dry
> forest and woodland could too.
The RAOU historical atlasses show a much more extensive distribution for the
malleefowl in eastern and central Australia (see p. 663 of the Atlas). Many
of these records must have come from non-mallee habitats. There have also
been recent records from central WA near the SA/NT border. In south-western
WA, many records are from outside mallee, including open forest, eucalypt
woodland, acacia woodland and various scrubs (usually with scattered mallee).
As Lawrie Conole said, what's keeping any of our megapodes from making more
extensive use of woodland/open-forest?
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Allan Burbidge http://cygnus.uwa.edu.au/~austecol/birds.html
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