On Fri, 03 Oct 1997 08:42:53 +0000 hillier lab
<> wrote:
>Hi everyone,
> I am heading to the little Desert soon (on that special birdwatching
>weekend Oct26) and although I have been there a few times I have never been
>able to find either Slender-billed Thornbill or Rufous Fieldwren. Both are
>almost certainly inhabitants of the Little Desert area and I think the
>Slender-billed Thornbill is hard to see elsewhere in Victoria. I was
>wondering if anyone had seen these birds in or near the Desert and if so if
>they could share their sighting spots with me.
> Also Slender-billed Thornbill looks pretty easy to confuse with the
>common Buff-rumped Thornbill. Does anyone have any good ID tips. Does
>habitat preference play a part in identification.
John
Both species are certainly present in the Little Desert and both occur in the
same habitat - low heath only about knee high. Try looking in the vicinity of
the
salt lake south of the Kiata camping ground, and almost anywhere west of there
towards the Nhill-Edenhope Rd.
Slender-billed T'bills are only in the heath and Buff-rumped T'bills do not
venture
far from the stringybark woodland. Their calls are similar but different enough
to
arouse suspicion. You need to obtain close views to see the lack of brown on
the
forehead.
Cheers
Peter Menkhorst
Senior Wildlife Policy Officer
Flora and Fauna Branch,
Department of Natural Resources and Environment
PO Box 500
East Melbourne Vic 3002.
phone: 03 9412 4288 fax: 03 9412 4586
|
