Undiscouraged by the address clearly not referring to myself, I offer the following. As to the first, on this chatline we have previously discussed the phenomenon of ‘falling dollarbirds’ - fledglings that leave the nest prematurely and can actually be picked up from the ground. This is the time of year; in fact we are about to have the ‘dollarbirds in suburbs’ conversation. If the subject here was a juvenile it would be in that category, if not it might have been an adult tending a fallen juvenile.
The second question might be prompted by the highly abbreviated language of field guides. Explanation of populations and movements of dollarbirds and koels would require several pages, if they can be explained at all.
From: jude hopwood [
Sent: Saturday, 21 January 2012 12:40 PM
To: COG
Subject: [canberrabirds] Query
Can anyone clarify this? Firstly, that Dollarbirds rarely feed on the ground according to BIB. The first of the two I spotted at Newline yesterday was on the ground creaking away which is what caught my attention. It was only as I approached the zone where he was sitting on the ground that he flew off and joined his friend. (I use 'he' without evidence.) I did not at any stage see any grasshoppers (BIB).
The other query, how does a bird gain a description as being from a particular country, when they spend half the year, like the Dollabird and Koel, in another country. What is it that makes them PNG - not Australian native?
