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Bob,
Regarding the Zitting Cisticola in the Wet Tropics, I certainly have
not heard of the bird anywhere north of Ingham where there is apparently
still a very small population right on the coast behind the mangroves.
When I gathered material for the Wet Tropics book, I could find no occurrence
of it north of Ingham. The next population north from there as far
as I am aware is the fairly recently discovered one at Marina Plains Statrion,
east of Musgrave Station, halfway up Cape York Peninsula and about 500
km north of Ingham. (S. Garnett & G. Crowley 'A New Population of Zitting
Cisticola on Cape York Peninsula': Sunbird 26:3:60). If the Zitting
proves to be at Tinaroo on the AthertonTableland, it certainly would be
a very unusual record and should be put before a records appraisal committee
- the Queensland committee (Birds Queensland) would probably handle it.
One important thing which is overlooked at least with this eastern subspecies
is its habitat preference. It is a bird of the short, saline grasslands
e.g. couch etc, behind coastal mangroves and beaches i.e very close to
the coast. I would be quite surprised if it was found in the widespread
inland grasslands which the Golden-headed inhabits and, with respect to
Mike, I would be very surprised to find it anywhere other than in the coastal
lowlands. Streaked has been reported from around Julatten and Mt
Molloy a few times but they proved to be Golden-headed.
Allan Ey (Sunbird 8:1:20) considered it as common from Cape Cleveland
(east of Townsville) south to about 15 km north of Bowen and less common
further south. He went on to say "It inhabits flat grassy country
on the fringe of coastal saltpans mainly covered with sand couch (Sporobolus
virginicus), open fields and water meadows".
During the breeding season, the call is quite diagnostic. As well
the nest is diagnostic and is not hard to find - usually not as hard to
find as the Golden-headed Cisticola which builds a domed nest with a side
entrance. The Zitting builds a long rather upright tubular nest,
open to the sky above. One can view the contents by looking straight
down. The nests we saw were simply placed in the couch and were obvious
from a distance. There was quite a difference in egg colour and markings
too but I cannot remember the details.
We saw quite a few north of Bowen - between Bowen and Ayr, right on
the coast about March one year where the birds were in fair numbers and
breeding but apart from a few notes made at the time, I don't remember
the finer details (it was about 25 years ago). I saw one bird briefly
in July last year close to Darwin. That bird seemed darker
and more richly coloured than Golden-headed with and from memory, a fairly
well streakeded crown and back. Tail seemed slightly longer but this may
have been an illusion. However, a different jizz was noticeable.
Garnett & Crowley state "The male in breeding plumage had a streaked
crown but unstreaked nape"
Have you checked Schodde's and Mason's Directory of Australian
Birds? I have no access to it at the moment. I would imagine
Pizzey and Knight to be the most accurate of the field guides. I
believe Frank Knight had the benefit of the CSIRO collection as a
reference while he was doing the paintings so my bet is that his illustrations
should be pretty accurate. It is worth reading Stephen Garnett's
& Gabriel Crowley's article as well as that of Allan Ey's.
The birding community up here in north Queenslandhave always been free
and cooperative with information when something new or interesting has
turned up - the grape vine still flourishes. The only time
(very rarely) anything has been withheld is when it has been vital to the
particular bird's own welfare.
Lloyd Nielsen,
Mt Molloy,
Nth Qld
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