In assessing the status of the Blue-faced Honeyeater for the upcoming revamped list of unusual species, COG’s Rarities Panel encountered the same issues Jack has alluded to. While there may have been 19 records
in 2018-19, this probably equates to two individual groups of birds, recorded multiple times. By the Panel’s reckoning, there have been fewer than 10 observations of clearly distinct BfHEs or groups thereof in the previous ten years. b
From: [
Sent: Monday, August 3, 2020 5:38 PM
To: 'Hawkins, Brian'; 'calyptorhynchus'; 'Canberra Birds'
Subject: Re: [Canberrabirds] Blue-faced Honeyeater
John/Brian, it would be very hard to give a reasonable estimate of the ACT BFHE records without a detailed interrogation of the COG database etc.
COG’s 2108-2019 Annual Bird report notes that the species has been reported in 7 years in the COG Area of Interest (AoI) since the first records in 2006. In 2018-2019 there were 19 records, a considerable
increase, mostly from Yass and Hall. The total number of birds was 35 but this included multiple sightings at similar time periods, so the actual number of birds would be far less than indicated in the data.
This would also apply to the Curtin birds which Brian has been reporting since February. I’ve counted at least 11 observers who have put a record of them into eBird since the 3 birds were reported
by Rowena Gribble on Saturday morning.
So even if you restricted the records to the ACT and not the much bigger COG AoI, extracting an accurate estimate of the actual number of unique birds from the duplicate reports could prove very
difficult.
Jack Holland
From: Hawkins, Brian <>
Sent: Monday, 3 August 2020 1:48 PM
To: calyptorhynchus <>; Canberra Birds <>
Subject: Re: [Canberrabirds] Blue-faced Honeyeater
G’day John,
I’m not sure of the answer to this, but I’ve been hearing/seeing them occasionally around Curtin since about February, most recently two birds last Wednesday in the green space near the bottom of
Nelson Place.
Best regards,
Brian
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How many previous records of BFHE have there been in the ACT?
--
John Leonard
Canberra
Australia
www.jleonard.net
‘There is kinship between people and all animals. Such is the Law.’ Kimberley lawmen (from Yorro Yorro)
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