Yes Blue Jay is a colloquial name for
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike.
It is quite possible that the
bird is the last one left. If the statement is taken in context of the local
scene. Going by Canberra, not that far from Wodonga in northern Victoria most of
the Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike leave Canberra for the winter, so it is quite
possible this person only has one left in their vicinity. The other bit is that
the species is in decline in total. Here is an extract from my 2003 book
"Canberra Birds: A Report on the first 21 years of the Garden Bird
Survey" that illustrates the point Note that Year 1 is 1981-82:
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike Coracina novaehollandiae
A woodland inhabitant that is apparently a partial migrant. It is present
throughout the year but in lower numbers in winter than summer. Its monthly
pattern when all years are combined is quite symmetrical. Numbers are low from
May to August, and peak in October and March. There is a small dip between
October and March when some of the birds go a bit out of the suburbs to breed.
This is clearly evident on most individual year’s results but does not
always occur in the same months. So when all years are combined, it evens out a
lot, to show up as a broad warmer months' peak with a slight dip in the middle.
Long-term there has been a strong suggestion of decline in abundance. It was
exceptionally common in Year 1 through most sites. Since then it has undulated a
bit but the general trend, especially for the last 11 years is of a decrease.
Breeding records could be on the decline but this is not definitive, were
highest in Year 1 (even relative to records of the species). There are a small
number of early one-off dependent young observations from late September to
October these are hard to explain. Mostly breeding records have activities at
nest from about mid November to early January and dependent young from December
to the last of them by mid April. The only duration available for a breeding
event suggests 14 weeks.
Graphs on page: 102, Rank: 13, Breeding Rank: 15,
Breeding graph on page: 107, A = 0.55151, F = 93.49%, W = 51.9, R = 34.961%, G =
1.58. -----Original
Message-----From:
<>
To:
Date: Tuesday, 22 June 2004 15:05 Subject: [BIRDING-AUS] Blue
Jays?
Am
after some collective advice from list members.
I've just received
one of our 'customer call centre' requests asking about
Blue Jays.
The observer claims the bird is the last one left (!) and
spends it day
trying to find conspecifics. The caller lives in Wodonga
in
northern Victoria.
My question is, what is (in Australia) a
Blue Jay? A corvid?
If it is a corvid they are of course not
threatened, but am interested to
know how birdos would respond to this
sort of query (which seems genuine).
Please advise me
directly.
Martin O'Brien
Executive Scientific Officer, Scientific
Advisory Committee
Department of Sustainability and Environment
4/250
Victoria Pde. (PO Box 500), East Melbourne 3002
Tel:
9412 4567 Fax: 9412 4586
(prefixes: Interstate 03 International
613)
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