GBS Diamond Firetail

[martin butterfield <>]

Steve

A very interesting sighting.  While there are 123 observations of Diamond Firetails in the GBS DB the are nearly all from sites with a rural nature.  The most prolific reports come in years 1 - 7 from a site technically in Kambah, but actually Arawang.  The only site reporting this species which i would consider "typically Urban" is in Weston and even that is only 400m from the grassland etc (well it was grassland then, it is rapidly becoming McMansions) North of Duffy.

The species is not rare (but not mega-common) out our way (Carwoola for new starters) but that is a much grassier habitat than over your back fence.

I think this is a sufficiently unusual sighting to qualify for the ACT birdline (noting that it is already in the GBS record so should NOT be included in BA or COG General records).

Martin

On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 12:33 PM, Steve Holliday <> wrote:

A single Diamond Firetail 30 metres from our back fence in Mt Ainslie Nature Reserve this morning. It was feeding on the ground near 3 Yellow-rumped Thornbills but flew off shortly after and hasn’t been seen again. A first for our GBS site, my closest previous records are from the Campbell Park end of Mt Ainslie NR (once) and the occasional sighting in the southern half of Goorooyarroo NR.

 

cheers

Steve