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Hello everyone,
Five months ago, I put a request onto bird-aus asking for
info. on where people might have seen Star Finches or White-bellied Crimson
Finches on Cape York Peninsula. Since a fair length of time has passed since
then I thought that I might put the request out again in case people have seen
these species since or in case new people have joined Bird-aus.
I am employed by the Department of Environment and Heritage in
Queensland to investigate many aspects of the finches ecology. I'm currently
looking into their ecology on Cape York Peninsula and am at the moment confined
to Pormpuraaw, on the west coast of Cape York. It seems as though the
White-bellied Crimson is confined to an area around Lakefield N.P. and along the
west coast of the Cape. The exact limits of the distribution are a bit hazy at
the moment and I would be interested in any observations people might have had.
The Stars also seem to be patchy in distribution and anywhere people have seen
them would be of interest.
If funding continues, later this year the project might be
moving to the Northern Territory. In anticipation of this I would be interested
to hear of anywhere that people may have seen Star Finches with a view to
finding suitable study sites. Especially of interest would be anywhere that
people have seen Crimsons (black-bellied in N.T.) and Stars in the same
area.
Hopefully, waiting for replies,
Mick
Michael Todd
Finch Researcher,
Dept.of
Environment and Heritage,
Pormpuraaw, Qld, Australia,
4871
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