Dear John and others,
A very interesting thread. The photos are also quite good for such a quick
event. Given the discussion of plumages recently I thought I'd also mention
from the photos the victorious resident (on the ground in the second photo), is
definitely an adult bird (white not cream markings which are spots not blotches
on the underwing coverts) and almost certainly a female (dark band across top
of chest). More interestingly, the two birds in the agonistic interaction are
the same sex, and, the bird flying on it's own in the last photo is a young
bird (buff not cream markings and generally dark underparts), which from the
previous photot appears to be the loser of the interaction. So, together this
suggests the older resident female driving out the younger 'floater' female.
This observation also fits with my findings in Melbourne that female-female
competition is more intense in this species than between males, which appears
to be favouring increased female size (hence the maintenance of reversed sexual
size dimorphism).
Great pics!
Happy falconing,
Paul
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr Paul G. McDonald
Department of Zoology
La Trobe University
Bundoora, Victoria 3086
Australia
Ph: + 613 9395 3253 Fax: +613 9395 3150
<>
http://www.zoo.latrobe.edu.au/Staff/mfc/pgm/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
=============================
|
