Another that I didn't see get a mention is the 'Wet Tropics Cicadabird' that
has perplexed many field observers with good hearing for decades. Glenn
Holmes, who sadly passed away in December, was one with an interest in that
bird.
Mike Carter, 03 5977 1262
181/160 Mornington-Tyabb Road
Mornington, VIC 3931, Australia
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus On Behalf Of
Kev Lobotomi
Sent: Wednesday, 27 January 2016 11:00 PM
To: ; Birding-Aus
Subject: Notes on Cape York Subspecies and Rarities
Hi Joshua
I would have thought there were even more potential splits up in north
Queensland! How about the Atherton Thrush, the Brown Gerygone, the Atherton
Grey Fantail, even the Golden Whistler, which isn't even a subspecies looks
a bit different up there, and there's the Purple-necked Brush-Turkey. Then
there's the Cape York finches, White-eared Masked, White-bellied Crimson
etc. There may even be more. I think some good genetic work may have many
more splits yet to come!-Kevin Bartram
> From:
> To:
> Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2016 10:11:30 +0000
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Notes on Cape York Subspecies and Rarities
>
>
>
> Max Breckenridge, Ashwin Rudder, Nathan Ruser and myself spent the first
half of January up around Cape York and Cairns. I have prepared some notes
on some of the new splits and mythical rarities around the area, along with
our experiences. I am also happy to help out with further information
regarding the below mentioned subspecies, etc. More information about our
sightings and experiences over the whole 3 weeks can be found in our
extensively detailed ~50 page trip report at
http://www.cloudbirders.com/tripreport/repository/BERGMARK_Australia_1201_20
152016.pdf
>
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> SPOTTED CATBIRD
> Likely split in the next version of IOC, the Cape York (Iron Range) form
will be different to the Cairns form. As others have noted, the northern
birds are much more skulky than their southern counterparts, however in Iron
Range National Park we had multiple views, particularly around the
Rainforest Campground and the start of the Coen Track nearby. They would
tend to perch briefly in trees calling, then as soon as we got close they
would fly away 50m, then keep calling. In all, not too hard to get a view of
if you try.
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> HERBERTON FUSCOUS HONEYEATER
> Described as Fuscous, reassigned to Yellow-tinted, then switched back to
Fuscous more recently, this strange intermediate population is quite
variable, and certainly doesn't fit well with either Fuscous or
Yellow-tinted as a species. I believe work is currently being carried out on
these birds by Lloyd Nielson, but in the meantime, the birds are not hard to
find at all. Best spot is in the forested square along Wieland Road, just
south of Herberton, but they are quite common through most wooded areas in
the surrounding region, including along the main track through Wondecla
State Forest.
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> BLACK TREECREEPER
> Not sure on whether this is likely to be split soon, if ever, but
certainly the northern race of Brown Treecreeper is very different to the
form down south (indeed, they were once different species). Best spot is the
end of Pickford Road just north of Mareeba, and the first kilometre of the
road into Mareeba Wetlands (we had a number of birds in this area).
Apparently also at Wondecla State Forest, but we did not see them here
(though we only visited for a short period of time).
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> RED BOOBOOK
> A tricky subspecies to pin down properly, as numerous individuals are
hybrids with ocellata, particularly on Mount Lewis it seems. January is not
the prime owl time, and understandably we heard one bird during our many
nights spotlighting around Cairns. We did manage to get eyes on this bird on
Mount Lewis, though it appears to be not a pure lurida. Simon Gorta and
Andrew Walker are in the region this week, and a few days ago night found
two probable hybrids at Wallaman Falls (one of them potentially pure, though
it is unclear from photos at this stage). There are very few photos of pure
birds (Geoff Jones has some great ones from Rose Gums
(http://www.barraimaging.com.au/BIRD-FAMILIES-OF-THE-WORLD/Tinamous-To-Parro
ts/Owls-Family-Strigidae/Southern-Boobook-Ninox-boobook/i-NCsW9vn), but it
is quite clear that you cannot count just any boobook you find in
rainforest. The case for splitting in this case seems quite weak, however as
Jeff Davies noted in a message to us, if Black-eared Miner is a species, Red
Boobook is just as valid. Best sites are apparently Mount Lewis, Lake
Eacham, Rose Gums, and the road to Tully Gorge.
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> TROPICAL ROSELLA
> Recent genetics have shown this form of Crimson Rosella is more distinct
than Green Rosella is to the southern Crimson Rosella complex, so will
likely be split in the near future. Unlike its southern counterparts, the
'Tropical' Rosella is definitely not an easy bird to come by, and should be
specifically targeted for anyone interested. Best spots are the Gourka Road
/ Bartle Frere Road (signposted as the former, Google Maps labels it the
latter), and the Seamark Road / Turner Road / McKell Road / Mount Hypipamee
area. We saw 2 birds during our visit, and the differences really are quite
obvious compared to the southern birds - darker back and facial patterns
specifically. I heard today that Andrew and Simon saw some at both Mount
Hypipamee and Hasties Swamp, though I suspect that they are very irregular
at the latter site.
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> BUFF-BREASTED BUTTON-QUAIL
> At the time of writing, this species has not been reliably recorded around
Cairns (or anywhere?) since 2011. Areas need to be found with sparse grass,
unburnt on the lower slopes of hills. In the past, the best areas have been
to the east of Lake Mitchell, however we were not able to locate any
suitable habitat here when we checked, as the unusual early December rains
had caused rapid grass growth. The far western boundaries of Mareeba
Wetlands have been very good in the past, however current ownership does not
allow access during the wet season, and hence reduces any chance of finding
this species to almost zero. AWC land towards Mount Carbine contained the
best habitat we could see from the road, however Lloyd Nielsen, Australia's
leading expert on this species, has advised that checking these areas in the
past did not produce any birds. If you intend to search for this species,
Lloyd is certainly the best person to get in contact with (and indeed, he
thinks he may possibly have flushed one bird at the traditional "truck stop"
site last year), but currently the species may be best searched for further
afield, towards Coen, and others more central areas of Cape York.
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> ATHERTON QUAIL-THRUSH
> This seemingly cryptic bird was discovered in 2007 near Ravenshoe (see
http://blogs.ecology-solutions.com.au/bird-o/2010/05/06/the-new-atherton-qua
il-thrush/), however all details have subsequently been suppressed,
seemingly due to the observer having bad experiences with taxonomists
wishing to collect specimens. Judging off available photos, a number of
Australian experts agree that these abnormally rufous birds represent a new
species of quail-thrush, but for any classification to be attempted, birds
need to be caught, recorded, measured and have feathers taken. Note that a
bird would not necessarily need to be collected. Initially, the bird was
thought to be critically endangered, however exchanges with the finder (both
by us, and other North Qld birders we have spoken with) indicate that in
fact these birds are flourishing in the right areas, and are widespread
around Ravenshoe (some birds apparently seen just outside town), and as far
north as at least Dimbulah. Despite this, nobody has been privileged with
site information, even almost a decade after discovery, and it appears the
only way to find out more about this probable species is to locate some. A
number of locals have searched for the quail-thrush every now and then, but
as of yet, nobody has had success. This is likely due to a very small number
of birdwatchers actually looking, since the area they are to be found is
devoid of almost all other bird life, as we discovered over a three day
search. Armed with multiple weeks of research and GIS data, correlating all
available information as best we could, our group put a concerted effort
into locating the quail-thrush. Despite not having success, we believe we
were on the right track, and with a few more people looking, birds could be
found over the next few years. This would allow research to be carried out,
and probably result in the first bird to be described from Australia in a
long, long time.
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> Information that we collected included:
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> 1: All the available photos online were taken in late November 2008,
according to EXIF data still present on the shots. The habitat has been
recently burnt, and so, by cross-referencing with burn scar data from
firenorth.org.au, we narrowed down the most likely search areas.
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> 2: GIS satellite-based analysis of both the southern Spotted Quail-thrush
and Buff-rumped Thornbill / Painted Button-quail (noted by the finder to be
'surprisingly common' in the areas he found quail-thrush.
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> 3: Geological and botanical maps based off what we could see visually in
the photos. This was difficult online, but in the field we found a number of
areas which matched exactly.
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> All in all, we decided the best way to search for these birds would be to
focus on burnt areas. From experience with birds in NSW, they may well still
be present in more densely-grassed habitat, however they are much easier to
spot in recently burnt areas, being quite an unobtrusive bird, often easy to
overlook. Those familiar with the very high-pitched contact call can't go
wrong by searching any good rocky areas of burnt ridgeline between Silver
Valley and Herberton, however we picked out some prime areas we think
warrant further searching. This map (http://i.imgur.com/exp8Sxg.jpg)
highlights major areas which probably should be checked. We hiked up Mount
Klaatsch (right marker at -17.459248, 145.301385), though the grass was very
dense, and no areas of ground quite matched up to that available photos of
the quail-thrush. If this area was burnt one year, it would be worth
checking a few weeks afterwards. We also followed a number of the 4WD tracks
visible on Google Maps to the west (left marker), though again found mostly
quite dense habitat, needing a good fire to be suitable for searching the
steep slopes.
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> There was a long stretch along Mt Misery Road (from about a kilometre
south before it intersects Gibbs Creek all the way almost in to Irvinebank)
which was unburnt, but looked relatively sparse, and perfect for
quail-thrush which is easily accessible even without a 4WD. Further south,
we had been following the road which runs west, then subsequently north from
Silver Valley, and found a good patch of burnt bush along a ridge which we
spent a good chunk of time searching, though no thrush. This was perfect
habitat, and certainly any bits similar in the same general vicinity could
very easily hold individuals (GPS: -17.593949, 145.276960).
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> Again, please feel free to contact us for further information - I will
happily help out anyone who is intending to go and have a look for this
species, and have been very interested in the form ever since I heard about
it half a decade ago - email me at or contact
Nathan Ruser, Max Breckenridge, or Ashwin Rudder.
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> _____________________________
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> As a side note, for those who followed 'The Decline of Birding-Aus' email
thread, one of the key points noted was that the reduced use of BA in favour
of Facebook has been cutting the number of recent trip reports and
up-to-date gen available. I encourage everyone to have a look at
www.cloudbirders.com, as it is an excellent website, allowing easy uploads
of PDF files, or linking to a birding blog, etc. It has up-to-date
information from all over the world, and is my go-to research base nowadays.
Australia however, is quite underrepresented (eg: only 15 trip reports from
2015, and 12 of which were uploaded by companies such as Birdquest or
Tropical Birding), however with more local contributors uploading reports,
it could become very useful to Australian birders. Over the next few weeks I
am intending to go through and upload all my more recent trip reports from
the Gawler Ranges, Tasmania, Broome, Bowra and central west NSW, but if
others follow suit over the next year or so, trip information like this will
be easily accessible in the future.
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> Cheers, and good birding,
>
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>
> Josh
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