canberrabirds

Bad neighbours, Corroboree Park

To: <>
Subject: Bad neighbours, Corroboree Park
From: "Geoffrey Dabb" <>
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2010 11:09:46 +1100

A most informative graphic, thank you Julian.  I've not been to Corroboree Park and must pay a visit.  It seems to be a major centre of activity.  I wonder if I shall not see more birdwatchers than actual corroboree participants?

 

On the question of neighbours, the below barely-decipherable offering is an attempt to superimpose the dollarbird map from HBW on the (now-dated) Common Myna distribution in John Long's 'Introduced Birds of the World'. The exercise faces the difficulty that different projections are used which changes both the shape of the land masses and their relationship to one another.  If you can work it out, it shows that in the breeding season the DB does indeed overlap introduced pockets of the resident detested myna in Australia.  However the birds know one another from elsewhere.  In parts of SE Asia and southern India the 2 are residents side by side.  There is an area in southern China where resident mynas are invaded by dollarbirds on their summer expeditions northwards.

 

Incidentally, this is an example of a species with a significantly non-Australian distribution which now bears an Australian-origin standard name.  According to Gould (who called it ‘Australian Roller’) it was a ‘Dollar Bird’ to the ‘Colonists’.  The other example I can think of is ‘Swamphen’.    

 

2 species.jpg

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Julian Robinson [
Sent: Sunday, 3 January 2010 12:35 AM
To: canberrabirds chatline
Subject: Bad neighbours, Corroboree Park

 

I thought a picture of the nesting Dollarbirds in Corroboree Park was posted recently, but can't find it.  The Dollarbirds have been nesting for at least two weeks and I went to check them out again today.  The neighbours are a bit sad, not Noisy but Common.  The left nest was in the adjacent tree to the Dollarbirds, and the other one is 20-30m away.  Maybe CIMAG should do some more selling in the area, or is it one of the control areas in current Myna studies?

 

Incidentally a SC Cockatoo was trimming a strip of bark from in front of a hollow on the recently lopped tree there. Hopefully the tree will be hosting nests again sooner than some of us thought. Maybe it was the hollow previously used by the Gang-gangs.

 

Julian

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the Canberra Ornithologists Group mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the list contact David McDonald, list manager, phone (02) 6231 8904 or email . If you can not contact David McDonald e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU