birding-aus

Fruit Dove Collisions & Whipbird Survey

To:
Subject: Fruit Dove Collisions & Whipbird Survey
From: Stan Emmerson <>
Date: Fri, 1 May 1998 21:56:53 +1000
Dear Scouler,
             My sister at Mt Molloy, North Queensland built a "penthouse" on
her property, which was a single room on the bank of Rifle Creek, enclosed
on 4 sides with flywire from floor to ceiling to keep out the mossies and
with a corrugated iron roof. It had been there for 4 years without incident,
then one day 2 years ago a male Superb Fruit Dove was inside the shack
sitting on the only piece of furniture (a double bed).  She then noticed a
hole in the wire where the bird had gone straight through it.  It must have
been travelling at great speed, weaving through the dense vegetation and
being new to the area went straight through the screen wall.  She opened the
wire door and released the bird which fortunately had not been injured and
still says it is the most beautiful bird she has ever seen.

Dear Jill,
          If you are ever doing research on Eastern Whipbirds in Far North
Queensland you might just count a few more birds from their call than is in
reality there.
I happened to observe at Ravenshoe a few weeks ago, a group of Chowchillas
(Orthonyx spaldingii). I had called 8 up and managed to sit on a track
between the split group for 15 minutes just before dark.  The group on the
southern side of the track would'nt cross to the rest of the family on the
northern side while I was sitting there. They constantly called to each
other while I watched, totally fascinated (me that is).  Then a strange
thing happened.  The leader on the southern side started to mimic a
Whipbird. It was as exact as you could get, only twice as loud.  Then the
leader on the other side of the track immediately answered back the same
call.  I could see the birds making the calls otherwise I would'nt have
believed it.  As I said it was a much louder (and therefore better) call and
lasted until I had to leave.

When I see a Whipbird I nearly always see its mate close by and therefore I
tend to agree with Ian (and also Pizzey & Knight) re the call combination.


Stan Emmerson
Cairns - Far North Queensland


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
  • Fruit Dove Collisions & Whipbird Survey, Stan Emmerson <=
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU