Interesting observations Michael.
The lesson here is that we should all spend much more time noting the
proportions of the different plumages. I was talking to Dick Shodde and
he agreed with my observations that one often sees a pair of Crimson rosella of
which one is in juvenile plumage. This is because female take longer to
acquire the full adult plumage and not because the older male is only
interested in a younger female or because there is a disproportionate loss of
females from the population.
Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael & Janette Lenz
[
Sent: Tuesday, 30 January 2007
9:58 PM
To: chat line
Subject: [canberrabirds] Crimson
Rosella - a measure of breeding success?
As part of a small project I have I
count sometimes at a point on Mt Majura birds passing by in the afternoon on
their way to a roost, this includes Crimson Rosellas. This afternoon (30 Jan.)
out of a total of 102 birds only 7 were young, i.e. about 7% of the birds.
Although in the past I have not separated birds by age class, just from general
impressions, the count tonight would indicate very poor breeding success. Most
birds passed as pairs or groups of adults only, very few family parties were
seen.
This is matched by day
observations in the suburb of Ainslie, on Mt Ainslie and a few other areas I
visit: there are some young around, but far fewer than in a "normal"
year.
Clearly the drought is biting and
even species we may not consider to be too much affected, definitely are.
