Dollarbird influx?

["Philip Veerman" <>]

Hi Geoff,

Re your question: "When do Dollarbirds generally migrate back up north (I presume it is at the end of the wet season)?" The data from COG's GBS as from my book: "Canberra Birds: A Report on the first 21 years of the Garden Bird Survey" shows as follows (see bold bit) (stock of books now sold out but a new slightly improved and updated version should be out soon). I don't know about if many are about this year but yesterday at Kelly's swamp there was a pair with two or perhaps three what probably were dependent young. Hard to think of any link between Dollarbirds & Superb Parrots to explain this.

Philip

Dollarbird Eurystomus orientalis

A summer breeding migrant that presents an interesting contrast to the Rainbow Bee-eater. This may be because this species stays more within the suburban areas, as it uses tree hollows to breed. It is noisy and conspicuous and individuals appear to have favourite spots to perch, on dead tree tops or power poles. Its monthly pattern is among the most consistent of species with a single peak each year in January or February (though in Year 16, its second lowest year, it peaked in December). When all years are pooled there are the first few birds in October, then rising smoothly to a single peak in January, then declining smoothly to the last few birds in March. It was most common in Years 1 & 2, also Years 3 to 10 had higher levels than Years 11 to 21. This suggests a strong decline. Interesting that Year 12 had the lowest by far and this is also the only year of absence of the Rainbow Bee-eater. Breeding records have also declined (11 in the first 9 years, compared with 7 in the last 12 years). No GBS nest records, only dependent young from late December peaking in January and the last in early March.
Graphs on page: 96, Rank: 46, Breeding Rank: 33, A = 0.05978, F = 33.45%, W = 22.7, R = 3.657%, G = 1.63.