BIRDS OF BAKERS BLUE MOUNTAIN, NORTH EASTERN QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA
Bakers Blue is on the extreme western edge of the fabulous Wet Tropics
Heritage Area, near Mt Molloy. Surprising to some, it was excluded from
that original gazettal. This isolated montane area (16°43?S 145°10?E) is
mostly woodland and open forest but there are excellent stands of
vine-thickets and, along the upper headwaters of the creeks, thick
rainforest.
John Winter surveyed the area during 1989-1990 and his birdlist is the
only one available. Recently I, John Stanisic (Queensland Museum) and
Lana Little (Department of Environment) climbed the mountain along Black
Gin Creek (17 July 1997). Following is our birdlist supplemented by John
Winter?s (from his 1990 unpublished report, `Vertebrate fauna survey of
Blakers Blue Mountain: a relict or derived fauna?).
Worth thinking about, Winter concluded correctly from the vertebrate
data that the Blakers Blue fauna was derived from nearby areas. However,
from our recent invertebrate data on molluscs and isopods, the area is a
refuge with many endemic species, some quite spectacular. These
conclusions illustrate a problem of how an area can be judged important,
or not so important, based upon different data sets. It also illustrates
how vertebrate data may not necessarily identify refugia. As you can see
from the birdlist, you probably won?t be making any efforts to visit the
mountain (overseas readers excluded).
Pacific Baza
Brown Goshawk
Australian Brush Turkey
Superb Fruitdove
Wompoo Pigeon
White-headed Pigeon
Brown Pigeon
Emerald Dove
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Blue-cheeked Rosella
Red-tailed Black-cockatoo
Rainbow Lorikeet
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
Common Koel
Boobook Owl
Papuan Frogmouth
Grey Swiftlet
Laughing Kookaburra
Blue-winged Kookaburra
Forest Kingfisher
Rainbow Bee-eater
Noisy Pitta
Little Cuckoo-shrike
Yellow-eyed Cuckoo-shrike
Cicadabird
Varied Triller
Pale-yellow Robin
Lemon-breasted Flycatcher
Rufous Whistler
Golden Whistler
Little Shrike-thrush
Black-faced Monarch
Leaden Flycatcher
Australian Mudlark
Grey Fantail
Large-billed Scrubwren
Weebill
Brown Gergyone
Fairy Gerygone
White-throated Gerygone
Little Treecreeper
Lewin Honeyeater
Scarlet Honeyeater
Yellow Honeyeater
White-throated Honeyeater
Dusky Honeyeater
Noisy Friarbird
Striated Pardalote
Mistletoebird
Silvereye
Figbird
Spangled Drongo
Spotted Catbird
Pied Currawong
Australian Magpie
Torresian Crow
Cheers
Glen Ingram
Brisbane, Australia
``I din't see no p'ints about that frog that's any better'n any other
frog' Mark Twain.
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