canberrabirds

Australian Little Bittern 2024 compared to 2012

To: Canberra birds <>
Subject: Australian Little Bittern 2024 compared to 2012
From: Wallaces via Canberrabirds <>
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2024 05:02:38 +0000

The extended time the female Australian Little Bittern spent feeding in front of Cygnus hide on 19 March 2024 allowed the capture of enough video to compare it to the behaviour of a female recorded on 18 October and 22 November 2012 (see Canberra Bird Notes June 2013). I have not completed the comparison but already the analysis is showing some significant differences in the intensity of feeding. While the percentage of strikes that resulted in the capture of a prey item was similar (70% in 2012, 71% in 2024), the rate of strikes was more than double in 2024 (26 per hour in 2012, 58 per hour in 2024). This increase in strike rate may have to do with a higher density of prey, which is indicated by the rate of movement of the bird in 2024 being considerably less (299, 134 steps per hour).

Preliminary estimates of the weight of the 34 prey items taken in 2024 indicate that they represent nearly half the weight of the average weight of the species (83.6g HANZAB). This estimate may change as it is based on the prey being weatherloach, which is yet to be confirmed.

I will write an article for CBN when I have finished the analysis but I thought these differences were worth a short note to the chatline.

 

Steve

 

Oct/Nov 2012

Mar 2024

Video analysed (minutes)

62

50

Strikes per hour

26

58

Successful strikes per hour

18

41

Percent of successful strikes

70

71

Steps

309

114

Steps per hour

299

137

 

 

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