Hello David,
I for one am very interested in your project. I was waiting to see if you
got many responses before I replied. However, I suspect that Peter Waanders
comment was closest to the mark- that no-one knows the answer to your
question, I certainly don't but I will try to help. I have an interest in
quail-thrush (most experience with Spotted) and have come across them many
times in the last 15 years, especially in the Lake Macquarie area. I found
a nest in the Mt Sugarloaf area behind Seahampton (West of Newcastle, NSW
for the Victorians), in about 1991 or thereabouts. It was situated at the
base of sapling Melalueca, underneath a clump of Kangaroo Grass (Themeda).
Despite this 95% of my observations are only anecdotal and of limited use
other than to give me an impression of Spotted Quail-thrush habitat choice.
When I was doing regular open-forest counts a few years ago, I only
recorded them occasionally as they were under-recorded due to their
secretive behaviour. I don't know of anyone who has studied Spotteds and I
believe that they would be only rarely caught in mist nets so there would
be very little recapture data. While I often see them in the same general
areas it is impossible to know whether I am seeing the exact same
individuals or different ones. Similarly when I find them 500 metres away
from a known site I don't know whether I am seeing the same birds or a
different pair. I think that they are probably territorial and would have
reasonable sized territories but I have little to base this on. In the Lake
Macquarie area they are almost entirely restricted to ridge tops which
maintain more of an open understorey than the slopes and gullies. After
burning some areas can become suitable until the vegetation thickens up
again. They are often seen on bush roads, I think because roadside edges
often maintain a bit of a narrow strip of more open microhabitat for the
birds to feed in. However, once the vegetation becomes too thick they
disappear. I presume they move on to look for any other unoccupied suitable
habitat.
I would be very interested in any observations as well, that people may
have made on SQT or of any articles that people may know of regarding them.
Julian Ford published an interesting article on quail-thrush evolution in
EMu (1983, 83: 152-172). Cleland published a little info on diet (seeds and
insects) in EMU (1919, 19: 79-93). Similarly there is a small amount of
info on diet in Barker and Vestjens (1990) -Food of Australian Birds. While
I've never specifically searched for quail-thrush papers there may be some-
but I don't know of them.
Good luck finding your Cinclosoma punctatum anachoreta!
Cheers,
Mick Todd
Toronto, NSW
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