canberrabirds

South Coast reports of Swift Parrots?

To: "Denis Wilson" <>, "COG bird discussions" <>
Subject: South Coast reports of Swift Parrots?
From: "Barbara Jones" <>
Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2012 07:45:41 +1000
 
Chris Tzaros, Recovery Officer for Swift Parrots, BirdLife Aust is in the area and I received an email from him on May 22 with the following news - and they were still on the hunt at that stage.
 
We got 470 swifties all up between Bodalla and just north of Bateman’s Bay.  All birds were in spotted gum-ironbark forest associations. 
 
At that time they had not reached further south of Corunna.
 
Along the Far South Coast we too have flowering Spotted Gums and thousands of Musk Lorikeets but so far only small groups (6 - 10) of Swifts have been reported. We are waiting for an influx.
 
Barbara Jones
 
From:
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2012 11:41 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] South Coast reports of Swift Parrots?
 
My brother reports that he was told of a "large flock of Swift Parrots - about 250 birds" at Narooma recently.
So it is a 3rd party report (now a 4th party report).

Being a good sceptic, he has asked me to check for any similar reports.

His information is that the Spotted Gums on the South Coast are having a huge flowering this year (now).
But that has brought in large numbers of Musk Lorikeets (as well as exciting the resident Rainbow Lorikeets).
He is inclined to attribute the report of "Swift Parrots" to Musk Lorikeets, mostly on roughly similar size and general colouring (as distinct from the Rainbow Lorikeets) which are more distinctively coloured and more noisy than either of the other species.

The question is, has anyone heard of reports of large numbers of Swift Parrots on the far South Coast?
Grateful for any reports, please.

Denis Wilson
"The Nature of Robertson"
www.peonyden.blogspot.com.au

<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