Birds drinking in the heat

["Ross Macfarlane" <>]

Anyone been to the Broome Bird Observatory in recent times? The goshawk used 
to make a regular dramatic entrance to the bird bath behind the dinner 
enclosure, swooping in and frightening off all the finches and bower-birds a 
couple of times a day...
-----Original Message----- 
From: Denise Goodfellow
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2015 12:32 PM
To: John Harris BA MPRIA
Cc: Simon and Alex Starr ; birding-aus
Subject: Birds drinking in the heat

 I’ve often seen Brown Goshawk (and other raptors) move into an area where 
Gouldian and other finches drank regularly (I also suspect the raptors 
figure out what sort of waterhole topography the birds prefer).  In the late 
Dry there are often few other options and so the finches etc take their 
chances.
Denise

Denise Lawungkurr  Goodfellow
PO Box 71
Darwin River, NT, Australia 0841

PhD candidate, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW.

Founding Member: Ecotourism Australia
Founding Member: Australian Federation of Graduate Women Northern Territory
043 8650 835









On 4 Jan 2015, at 8:38 am,  wrote:

> Hi Simon,
> Back in late 2003 while do some fauna work at Scotia Sanctuary, I observed 
> a number of Honeyeater species, pardalotes, Crested Bellbird all coming 
> down to drink at dam. The interesting thing about this was that they also 
> shared this drinking spot with a Brown Goshawk and the smaller birds were 
> often drinking at the same time as the goshawk.
> I guess the need for water was more urgent than the potential fear of the 
> goshawk.
> Regards
>
> John.
>
> Yours in all things "green"
>
> John Harris BASc, GDipEd
> Director - Wildlife Experiences P/L
> Principal Zoologist/Ecologist
> Nature Photographer
> Wildlife Guide
> Croydon, Vic
> 0409 090 955
>
> President, Field Naturalists Club of Victoria
> www.fncv.org.au
>
> ----- Reply message -----
> From: "Simon and Alex Starr" <>
> To: "Birding Aus Mailing List" <>
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Birds drinking in the heat
> Date: Sat, Jan 3, 2015 19:08
>
> Today I stopped by at a waterhole in the central Victorian scrub near
> Inglewood, a site I have visited for many years, for a spot of fishing, 
> well
> actually bird fishing, sit and wait and see what you catch. It reached a
> peak of 43 degrees today in the area, I was watching between 3pm and 5 pm
> and had many visitors drop in, including "waves" of birds at times all 
> lined
> up in mixed species flocks. The usual array of Honeyeaters were lining up,
> Brown-headed were the commonest followed by Yellow-plumed, White-eared and
> Yellow-tufted. All regular birds here whether it's 43 degrees or 33 
> degrees.
> Also present was a Black-chinned, New Holland and Eastern Spinebill, all
> drinking also.  Today no Pardalotes, Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters or
> White-fronted Honeyeaters but I would normally expect them to visit.
>
> I have found that the hotter it gets the bigger range of species I see, so 
> I
> love to visit in the extreme weather as you never quite know what bird 
> will
> decide it's time for a rare drink of H2O
>
> As I have observed in previous years when its over 40, Superb Fairy-wren
> came for a drink, in fact a whole family repeatedly drank, usually they 
> show
> little interest and I only remember them sipping occasionally in the past,
> today they were thirsty, as were  Silvereye, Weebill, Rufous Whistler and
> Grey Shrike-thrush.  A Collared Sparrowhawk dropped in, but did not drink,
> probably because of my presence, I have observed Goshawk drink here 
> before.
> Today however I scored a couple of new species imbibing the fluid of life!
> A pair of Variegated Fairy Wren were around as they usually are but I had
> never seen them drink before today. And then even more surprising a single
> Inland Thornbill came down to the water and spent some time there, 
> drinking
> several times.
>
> Birds resident in the immediate vicinity that I have never observed to 
> drink
> include Shy Heathwren, Crested Bellbird, Yellow Thornbill, and
> Chestnut-rumped Thornbill, however this list is gradually shrinking.
>
> I am interested to know if there are many species that never drink even 
> when
> it's available to them in the most extreme weather. Can anyone share some
> observations? Clearly there are some desert species surviving without 
> water,
>
> Regards,
> Simon Starr.
>
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