birding-aus
Mike Hines and David James both had some comment on Frigatebirds in Q'ld in
the last week or so. I was involved with Lady Elliot Island's Bird Week
(2-7 Feb) and one of the things we tried to do was work out what species of
Fregata we were seeing. We saw two adult male Greats (Fregata minor) and
one adult male Lesser (Fregata ariel). The maximum number of birds we saw
in any one day was 22. Apart from the three birds just mentioned, the rest
of the birds were juveniles; very hard to pick which species. In the end I
estimated that about two thirds of the birds were Greats. We got a really
good look at four perched in a tree one day. All had blue/green eye ring,
black eye, pinkish fleshy feet/legs, greyish white bills, brown scapulars.
They all had varying amounts of white on head, throat, breast and
underwing.
Lady Elliot is a 42 hectare coral cay at the southern-most end of the Great
Barrier Reef and is about 50 km off the coast between Bundaberg and
Gladstone. Apart from the birds, the snorkelling/diving is wonderful and I
would recommend a visit. Herewith is our bird list for the week.
Wedge-tailed Shearwater Puffinus pacificus 150+
Red-tailed Tropicbird Phaethon rubricauda 6 adult, 3 chicks
Brown Booby Sula leucogaster 48
Great Frigatebird Fregata minor 2 male} 20 juveniles
which
Lesser Frigatebird F. ariel 1 male} could be either
species
Eastern Reef Egret Egretta sacra 11 white, 9 grey
White-faced Heron E. novaehollandiae 2
White-bellied Sea-Eagle Haliaeetus leucogaster 2 juvenile
Buff-banded Rail Gallirallus philippensis 50+
Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica 3
Whimbril Numenius phaeopus 4
Grey-tailed Tattler Heteroscelus brevipes 9
Wandering Tattler H. incanus 5
Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres 200+
Pied Oystercatcher Haematopus longirostris 3
Sooty Oystercatcher H. fuliginosus 1
Pacific Golden Plover Pluvailis fulva 30+
Grey Plover P. squatarola 2
Lesser Sand Plover Charadrius mongolus 13
Silver Gull Larus novaehollandiae 250+
Crested Tern Sterna bergii 500+ adult, 250+ juvenile
Roseate Tern S. dougallii 1
Black-naped Tern S. sumatrana 30+
Bridled Tern S. anaethetus 1000+
Sooty Tern S. fuscata 6 adult, 3 chicks
Common Noddy Anous stolidus 1000+
Black Noddy A. minutus 10000+
Grey Ternlet Procelsterna cerulea 1
Shining Bronze-Cuckoo Chrysococcyx lucidus 1
Channel-billed Cuckoo Scythrops novaehollandiae 1
Sacred Kingfisher Todirhampus sanctus 2
Brown Honeyeater Lichmera indistincta 3
House Sparrow Passer domesticus 30+
Tawny Grassbird Megalurus timoriensis 10+
Silvereye Zosterops lateralis 30+
List in taxonomic order as per Christidis & Boles (1994)
Numbers are either exact number counted or estimates from rough census
(where +sign is used)
Roy Sonnenburg
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