birding-aus

Rainbow Bee-eaters

To: martin cachard <>
Subject: Rainbow Bee-eaters
From: Bob Moffatt <>
Date: Thu, 9 May 2013 10:59:52 +1000
I must add that these birds were flying north

Sent from my iPhone

On 09/05/2013, at 10:17 AM, Bob Moffatt <> wrote:

> Thought I should report my recent exp with this species; many hundreds 
> possibly thousands calling from really high (not visible) even with cursory 
> use of bins but calls very distinctive - birds calling for at least 20 mins 
> on 30th April over south Lismore
> Regards
> Bob moffatt
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> On 09/05/2013, at 9:29 AM, martin cachard <> wrote:
> 
>> Hi Dom,
>> I would hazard to guess that the increased numbers of Rainbow Bee-eaters 
>> around Cairns would be due to probably 2 things...
>> 
>> Firstly there are many birds from more southern parts of the country that 
>> regularly winter up here that would be arriving the past month or so, & this 
>> combined with very many young first year birds that we see up here en-masse 
>> after summer, could probably be just 2 reasons why you are seeing more birds 
>> than normal.
>> The dune scrubs along the Northern Beaches suburbs of Cairns (Yorkey's Knob 
>> is one of these for those reading not from the area) are a major breeding 
>> area for the species, with a great deal of the birds burrowing into very 
>> flat sandy ground behind the beaches - indeed many nest on nature strips in 
>> the streets one or 2 blocks back from the beaches!!
>> 
>> We are very fortunate to have such a beautiful species up here in such 
>> numbers in out streets!!
>> 
>> Cheers for now,
>> Martin Cachard
>> Cairns
>> 
>> 
>>> From: 
>>> To: ; 
>>> Date: Wed, 8 May 2013 19:32:26 +1000
>>> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Rainbow Bee-eaters
>>> 
>>> Dominic,
>>>            The largest flock I've ever seen was only 30 birds, and that 
>>> was over 20 years ago in SA.
>>>            But a couple of folk attending last Saturday's outing of 
>>> BirdLife Sunshine Coast reported seeing a flock of around 200 Rainbow 
>>> Bee-eaters at Dulong, a few kms west of Nambour,
>>> in the previous week.
>>> 
>>> Russ Lamb, Maleny,SEQ



<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU