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Zitting Cisticola at L Tinaroo

To: Robert Inglis <>, Birding-Aus Mail <>
Subject: Zitting Cisticola at L Tinaroo
From: (Richard Johnson)
Date: Sun, 06 Aug 2000 15:52:21 +1000
Dear Bob and others
On the face of it, it does seem an unlikely record - no offence intended to Mike Tarburton. The'Atherton region' of the Atlas (Blakers et al 1984) does not refer to the surrounds of the town of Atherton per se but to a rather arbitrarily defined 'Wet Tropics', presumably to distinguish this area of bird endemism from the rest of eastern Qld. It includes the NEQ coast from about Ingham to Cooktown, where the subspecies laveryi is known to occur.
Lake Tinaroo is a long way inland and uphill from the coastal lowlands where the species is known to occur. As far as I know, it is only known from coastal or near coastal grasslands in NEQ and elsewhere in its Australian range. Conversely, if my addled memory serves me yet, Golden-headed Cisticolas are pretty common in the 'derived' grasslands of the Atherton Tableland.
On my scant knowledge of the bird, this would seem to be a very significant range extension and the record definitely should be assessed by BARC or similar. I don't know about a secret location known only to an 'in crowd'! Sounds a bit conspiracy-theoryish to me...but then, you never know!

Richard

Robert Inglis wrote:

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'?!   Bob Inglis
Woody point SEQld,
27 deg 15min 18 sec S; 153 deg 5 min 38 sec E
E-mail:
WWW: http://www.powerup.com.au/~inglisrc

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+----------------------------------------+
Richard Johnson
Roma District
Tel: (07) 4622 4266  Fax: (07) 46 22 4151
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