Julienne is far from a beginner, but her
question below is an opportunity to comply with Julian’s exhortation and
provide some background for newcomers to this list. The first point is
how you find out things. The 2 most useful sources for such questions on
local birds are probably the 1992 COG Atlas (still) and Philip Veerman’s
self-published summary of the GBS data. Anyone who wants an overview of
the local birdlife should have access to both those volumes.
For the Gang-gang, the atlas shows a
Sept-April concentration of records in the ranges to the west, with less
records around Canberra.
The May-August map shows far fewer records in the ranges, but still some
records about Canberra.
Philip notes that the peak for GBS sites is April/May, the low being
December-January. It is reasonable to think that the Autumn influx is due
to the abundance of food from seeding trees at that time. Where do the
Gang-gangs now breed that used to use tree-hollows in the ranges, pre-fires?
The odd pair is still recorded breeding around Canberra, but the ranges to the
west were always the western limit for this species, and the answer can only be
that they are now using the forests to the east of Canberra. This is
supported by the information in the 2003 BA Atlas.
The seasonal pattern for the AKP is
broadly similar. However there seems to be a significant difference in
the longer term fortunes of the two species. The Gang-gang is quite
possibly declining, locally if not in overall numbers. The King Parrot
was virtually unknown around Canberra,
but after a steady increase over a long period, recently broke into the Top 15
most-widely-recorded species in GBS terms. Each winter there seem to be more
of this species around the suburbs. Numbers are increasing so rapidly
that the seasonal pattern might well change, with more birds staying through
the warmer months and possibly – and this is the interesting question - possibly
establishing a pattern of breeding around Canberra
itself. Tantalisingly, a few King Parrots are being seen around the
woodlands in Spring: I found 2 small groups (2, 4) at Callum Brae a few
days ago. Regular woodland watchers like Michael Lenz take a keen
interest in any KP sightings. So far as I know, confirmed breeding in the
Canberra area,
at least successful breeding, is yet to be established. There is a
detailed account of possible breeding attempts at Bruce Ridge, by Chris Davey
in CBN 31:2 (June 2006). Hence, any news of KP breeding will be of
considerable interest.
From: Kamprad
[
Sent: Wednesday, September 27,
2006 7:32 PM
To: Geoffrey
Dabb;
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Info
needed: Cockatoos, parrots
Do we know where the Gang-gangs and King Parrots go to when they
leave Canberra?
