It has long been known that flocks of Red Wattlebirds move out of the lower
SW of Western Australia in autumn and return in late spring-early summer
(see eg. Serventy & Whittell, Birds of WA). These are usually relatively
small flocks, ie up to 20-30 birds. However, Storr (Birds of the SW of WA)
reports roving flocks of up to 100 in late summer. Roger McGovern's
observation is consistent with this, but is an even bigger flock.
Cheers,
Allan
At 05:03 PM 21/01/99 +0800, Roger McGovern wrote:
>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
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Allan Burbidge http://cygnus.uwa.edu.au/~austecol/birds.html
E-mail OR
OR
Snail PO Box 312, Wanneroo, Western Australia 6065
Tel/fax + 61 (0)8 9306 1642
|
