Geoffrey, very interesting.
While I have occasionally had red-broweds in the MFFs in my GBS site this
autumn they have really been at the fringes, and certainly haven’t appeared to
be eating the lerps which seem to be the main food for the pardalotes,
silvereyes and weebills which have formed the nucleus of the MFF. I’ve
also checked HANZAB and can’t find lerps mentioned there as red-browed food,
though like you I find the closely written text very turgid reading, and may be
overlooking the word.
Away from my GBS on Cooleman Ridge and Narrabundah Hill the finch/firetail
MFFs (red-broweds and double-barred and/or diamond firetail are often the most
numerous species) are certainly very different in composition and habits than
those in my GBS site in that the activity is largely on the ground compared with
the foliage/shubbery. I had imagined they were largely eating seed, but
certainly there are almost always some insectivores amongst them, notably the
superb fairy-wren.
Jack Holland
From:
Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 3:40 PM
To:
Cc:
Subject: FW: [canberrabirds] Re: An unusual day - bird
food
An
interesting observation, Denis, but in your thesis on foods of the Red-browed
Finch, it might be wise to avoid the verb ‘munch’, to avoid giving a slightly
misleading impression of how the average finch approaches its tucker. Some
years ago a work was produced by the CSIRO Division of Wildlife Research under
the title ’The Food of Australian Birds’. This was the result partly of
investigating the stomach contents of specimens obtained by the Australian
National Wildlife Collection (an exercise which might or might not be continuing
in these financially straitened times) and also of a search of the avian
literature for notes on bird food. In the latter process a certain rigour
was applied so, to quote, ‘statements such as “the galah was feeding in a
turpentine bush” … do not indicate what the bird was eating and are thus not
included’. Whether your below report would pass muster from that viewpoint
I would not presume to say.
HANZAB
was the successor to that CSIRO production, and this, I am told, had a ‘Food
Editor’ for each volume or group of species, an office that one would be more
likely to associate with the Sunday edition of a national newspaper than a
selection of material presented for the advancement of science. I note
that with respect to the Red-browed Finch nearly 3 pages of the discouragingly
small print are devoted to ‘Food’. The very second line of that section
refers to ‘insects’ and in the seventh line we learn, pleasingly if
surprisingly, ‘some insects taken by sallying’. It is enough to make you
stop to check that you haven’t turned over a few pages together and landed in
the middle of the entry on the Grey Fantail. Without trying to summarise all the
insects that this species is recorded as having sampled, I might add that
it is certainly on record that it forages in the company of committed
insectivores from time to
time.
From: Denis
Wilson [
Sent: Wednesday, 15 June 2011 2:10
PM
To: Philip Veerman
Cc: COG bird
discussions
Subject: [canberrabirds] Re: An unusual
day
Thanks for the reply and
explanation, Philip.
I did not know they were happy to munch on insects,
but it certainly fits the pattern of observed behaviour - "working" through
foliage plants, in company with Silvereyes and Wrens.
Your comments are
much appreciated.
Denis
On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 11:33 PM, Philip Veerman <>
wrote:
I think
pretty much all the finches eat insects, especially when breeding and feeding
young. The Mannikins not so much, the Crimson and Star Finches a lot. The
Red-brows (which are close to the Crimson and Star Finches) do too. Immelmann's
book says of them "The insects are usually taken from foliage instead of caught
on the wing as with the arid country species of grass finches." I had not
thought of that at all in my comment that Red-browed Finches especially like
joining in with Superb Fairy-wrens. I don't know how relevant that
is.
-----Original Message-----
From: Denis Wilson
[mailto:m("gmail.com","peonyden");" target=_blank>]
Sent: Tuesday, 14 June 2011 7:18 PM
To:
wallaces
Cc: COG bird discussions
Subject: Re:
[canberrabirds] An unusual day
Actually a MFF question, but the existing heading fits my
topic too.
Further to Steve's note about active birds on a lousy day. in
the middle of a heavy Robertson downpour, I observed (through a wet
window) a mixed feeding flock of Silvereyes, Superb Fairy-wrens, Red Browed
Finches working their way through shrubbery seemingly looking for small
insects.
Certainly they were not going down into the long grasses. The
plants (mixed Natives and exotic shrubbery, including Maples (which are known to
be favoured by Aphids for laying their eggs) and an early-flowered Viburnum. No
"seed" bearing plants amongst these.
So
the pertinent question is: Does anyone know if Red-brows are occasional
insectivores?
This question has been approached, but I think,
skirted around in recent discussions of MFFs. Otherwise, why are the Finches so
happy to join in with Wrens and Silvereyes, on an insect-killing spree?
Or is
it simply mass-hysteria amonsgst small birds, on a wet day?
Grateful
advice. Pls.
Denis WIlson
--
Denis Wilson
"The Nature of Robertson"
www.peonyden.blogspot.com
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