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When the honeyeater migration is on in Canberra
every April & May, for weeks during good weather, continuous streams
of flocks of up to several hundred Yellow-faced and White-naped
Honeyeaters, with a liberal sprinkling of other birds pass through. Red
Wattlebirds also do so, though their flocks are more commonly in the 20 to 60
birds range.
-----Original Message-----
From:
Roger McGovern <>
To:
birding-aus <>
Date:
Thursday, 21 January 1999 20:14
Subject: Flocking Red
Wattlebirds
I am living in Mosman Park, a suburb of
Perth on the Lower Swan River towards Fremantle, and at about 0700hrs on
January 19th I observed a flock of about 120 Red Wattlebirds congregated in
two Lemon-scented Gums (not flowering) in my back yard. They remained there
for some ten minutes with a few arrivals and departures, and they then quite
quickly dispersed in twos, threes and half-dozens. Red Wattlebird is
probably the most numerous specie in this neighbourhood but I have never
seen them in a huge group like this.
Is this behaviour known in the literature or
does anyone have an explanation for what looked like a breakfast
get-together of every Red Wattlebird within a kilometer or two from
here?
Roger
McGovern
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