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As is usual around Port Douglas in the winter
months we've been observing the local White-breasted Woodswallows all lined
up in the first sunlight in their effort to warm up. Our overseas guests find
the sight very appealling as they jostle for position in rows of up to 20 or so
birds.
It would appear that their fine
feathering akin to that of pelagic species may not be especially well adapted to
keeping out the cold.
Most of the Woodswallow
population have developed the practice of roosting around transformers that are
placed about the towm on the power poles. They normally hawk for
insects until dusk and then line up on the wires mostly less than a metre
above the transformer.
During the Wet I imagine that
they have their night roosts in foliage when their body temperature would be of
little concern.
Del. Richards, Fine Feather Tours, Mossman,
NQ.
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