canberrabirds

The old Sacred Kingfisher routine

To: 'John Layton' <>, 'Canberra birds' <>
Subject: The old Sacred Kingfisher routine
From: Philip Veerman <>
Date: Sun, 7 Feb 2021 23:38:05 +0000

Not entirely sure how to comment on the mention of the clothes hoist but February is expected, this is the time of year that they move through. This from The GBS Report.

Sacred Kingfisher Todiramphus sanctus

This species shows the typical pattern of the breeding summer migrant with a warmer month peak but with a trough in the middle. Arrival of first birds in September and numbers peaking rapidly in October as birds move through the urban areas before mostly settling in woodland or continuing on their migration south. Followed by a slight decline to December and January, then an increase in February as birds start moving north again or independent young start dispersing. The birds are noisy when they arrive and even more so when breeding. However when the young have become independent and they move through the suburbs they are generally silent. Numbers have declined, being twice as high for the first year as for any subsequent years. Other than that they had a dramatic decline from Year 8 steadily down to less than one tenth that number in Year 13 and staying low. Breeding records are inspecting hollow in early December and dependent young in late January in Years 1 & 5 at Sites 14 & 22 only.
Graphs on page: 96, Rank: 61, Breeding Rank: 63, A = 0.01117, F = 19.51%, W = 15.5, R = 1.046%, G = 1.07.

 

 

From: Canberrabirds [ On Behalf Of John Layton
Sent: Monday, 8 February, 2021 9:09 AM
To: Canberra birds
Subject: [Canberrabirds] The old Sacred Kingfisher routine

 

Yesterday morning I watched a Sacred Kingfisher land on the clothes hoist, hop this way and that for a few seconds before sitting still for some 30 seconds then flying to nearby power cables where it hopped about and sat doggo again before spearing off towards the north east. Interestingly, my little black birder’s book records that same sequence in the same location three times during the past 14 years and all incidents were during February.

 

John Layton

Holt.

Attachment: ATT00001.txt
Description: ATT00001.txt

<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