One of my more driving objectives on a recent trip to the Kimberley with John Goldie and Kathy Walter was to see Gouldian Finches in the wild. I wasn’t sure of our chances given a) I saw none in 2009 doing some of the same area, and b) pessimistic reports about the status of this species.
Optimistically I believe it would be true to say that for the moment they are doing comparatively well i.e. better than recent years. We saw them on five separate occasions though mostly in small numbers and none at all at Mornington. Best of all near Timber Creek in NT I came across a feeding flock of 400 and on talking to a local ranger, he confirmed that he had seen/heard of similar in the area. Second best was our first sighting of them simply feeding in the middle of the donga on a hot hard day i.e. the first time we managed to see some without resorting to hanging around a waterhole.
One interesting question is why nearly all of them were juveniles? There is a theory that in hard times (such as Gouldians must be having over these droughty and dissected habitat times) the parents put so much effort in to raising their young that they die of exhaustion soon after. I’d be keen to hear if anyone knows the truth or otherwise of this, but in the big flock I saw 95% or more were juveniles (also only 1% or so of other species) – see pic attached. Alternatively maybe the pairs were already off elsewhere getting ready for next brood, leaving only a few minders with the nursery? As I understand it breeding season doesn’t start till November or December (this was August), so this doesn’t seem the most likely.
A reason they may be recovering is changed fire regimes, since Gouldians like grazing on recently burnt areas near both unburnt country and water. Perhaps fortunately for them, the currently popular fire regime is more, earlier, smaller, patchier fires and we could see evidence of this everywhere.
The attached photo is typical of what I managed of part of the large flock thanks to a sparrowhawk – after these very distant shots, I spent 15 minutes sneaking up behind a tree and installing myself in the shade of the tree, just about to raise bins and camera when the sparrowhawk flew to the same tree and put the whole lot to flight. A couple of more successful Gouldian shots taken near Edith Falls north of Katherine are on flickr – below link points to one. I think if you click on “Back to photostream” or “aaardvaark’s photostream” on this page it will take you to the correct point in my photos where the other finches are, together with some Hooded Parrots at the same waterhole.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ozjulian/15203870240/
Does anyone have any comment on why there were so many juvenile birds and so few adults? Or how they are doing?
Julian
www.flickr.com/photos/ozjulian/
