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Hello again,
In the June 2000 edition of Australian Birding Magazine (packed full of
good stuff!) Mike Tarbuton reports, in his article on page 6, that he observed
Zitting Cisticola at Lake Tinaroo in December 1999.
Is this an extension of the range for this species?
None of my field guides, including Lloyd Nielsen's "Birds of Queensland's
Wet Tropics and Great Barrier Reef" include that area in the distribution
details for that species - maps or text.
"The Atlas of Australian Birds", Blakers, et al (1984), does claim the
subspecies laveryi occurs in the 'Atherton region' however it appears
that none were sighted in that area during the atlasing period.
The term 'Atherton region' probably needs defining........ please?
If the Lake Tinaroo area is in fact a recognised location for
Zitting Cisticola it would appear that this is possibly the
first reported sighting for many years.
A quick perusal of the Australian Bird Atlas Map Viewer seems to indicate
that no reports of Zitting Cisticola had been received up to
14/3/2000.
Should this sighting be assessed by BARC?
As the bird was observed during the breeding season it would be assumed
that it was in breeding plumage and therefore less likely to be confused with
Golden Headed Cisticola.
However........
The field guides are confusing as usual!
* Pizzey and Doyle (1980) and Pizzey and Knight (1997) both say that
Zitting is more heavily streaked on the nape than
Golden-headed.
*Simpson and Day (1999) say that breeding male Zitting has
unstreaked nape.
*"Readers Digest Photographic Field Guide Birds Of Australia" agrees with S
& D (1999).
*Peter Slater, "A Field Guide to Australian Birds, Passerines" (1974) says
breeding Zitting has lightly streaked nape and non-breeding
Zitting has more heavily streaked nape.
*Slater, Slater, Slater, "The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds" does
not mention the nape in the text for Zitting but the
illustrations seem to indicate very faint or no streaking on the nape.
*The photos in "Readers Digest Photographic Field Guide" & "The Wrens
and Warblers of Australia" (The National Photographic Index of Australian
Wildlife, 1982) are inconclusive but possibly favour faint or no streaking on
the nape of Zitting Cisticola.
*The colours depicted in the illustrations in Simpson and Day (1999)
show virtually no difference between Zitting and
Golden-headed whereas the illustrations in Pizzey and Knight
(1997) show an obvious difference. This is may only be due to the problems
associated with printing colours in such books.
If the calls of Zitting and Golden-headed
Cisticola recorded on Cassette 9 of BOCA's "A Field Guide to Australian
Birdsong" are typical, I would think it would be relatively easy to identify one
from the other by call.
Am I correct?
This appears to me to be a significant record.
But then again.........
Has the existence of Zitting Cisticola at Lake Tinaroo
been a fact known by the 'in-crowd' for a long time and has Mike Tarbuton
inadvertently 'let the cat out of the bag'?!
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