At 17:04 9/01/1999 +1100,Philip wrote:
>It (the Dollarbird feeds on large insects (such
>as cicadas and beetles) caught in flight.
Yesterday afternoon, 1645 hours, Fay and I were at Nathan Road (our "local
patch") and observed in excess of 20 Dollarbirds "hawking" over Nathan Road
itself and beyond over the "wasteland" of grasses and smallish shrubs.
Dollarbird is never a particularly common or numerous species in the
Redcliffe area so seeing this many at one time was quite a pleasant surprise.
It completed a great afternoon of casual birding (no "twitching") as only
half an hour or so before this we'd been watching an Australian Hobby Falco
longipennis cavorting over the "ponds" at Nathan Road. This is a rare
species for the area. We stood fascinated as it made a long low swoop
across the water, climbed to clear the nearby trees, circled and came back
in for another swoop. It then perched in a tree (two Crested Pigeon a
little above it appeared to be totally unconcerned by its presence) before
repeating the swooping strategy.
Julian
.....................
Julian Bielewicz
Past President
Queensland Ornithological Society
12 Florence Street
Kippa-Ring, Q. 4021
Australia
Tel: +61 7 3283 4921
Fax: +61 7 3889 4272
email:
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