Hi Ross,
We've just arrived back from a 2-week stay near Manning Point on mid-North
Coast of NSW where there was a cicada outbreak. Large numbers of Little
Wattlebirds were feeding on the cicadas, but there were few other
"irruptive" bird species there as a result of lack of flowering or seeding
plants.
Stephen Ambrose
Ryde, NSW
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Ross Macfarlane
Sent: Sunday, 10 January 2010 12:10 PM
To: birding-aus
Subject: Bird irruptions and cicadas
Greetings all,
As has been widely discussed here, there have been a lot of irruptions of
different bird species in the southeast this past spring - rufous songlarks,
white-winged trillers, black tailed native hens, scarlet and black
honeyeaters come to mind. A couple of days ago my Dad mentioned something
he'd seen and I wondered if this was a widespread phenomenon, and if there
was a link. That is that he saw large numbers of woodswallows during the
spring - white-browed and masked - feeding on emergent cicadas in the Nyah
Forest, along the Murray River north of Swan Hill. Apparently even feeding
on the ground, which is unusual for them. Other birds taking advantage too,
such as straw-necked ibis.
Cicadas are known for having long, prime-number based life cycles (13 or 17
years; see http://kottke.org/09/08/cicadas-mating for example). I don't know
anything about the ecology of Australian ones, but could this past year have
been a cicada season, and could that have contributed (along with the spring
rains) to the bird irruptions? Interested to hear thoughts from anyone who
knows more about such things...
Cheers,
Ross Macfarlane
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