Finches of Far North Queensland

[Michael Todd <>]

Hello Michael and other finch-lovers,

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to study some northern Australian
finches between 1998 and 2000 when I was working for the Tropical
Savannas CRC. I was employed to investigate the ecology of the Star Finch
(particularly Neochmia ruficauda clarescens) and the Crimson Finch
(particularly Neochmia phaeton evangelinae) but I collected some
info on other finches as well. 

One of the most interesting finches I encountered was the Lesser
Red-browed Finch, Neochmia temporalis minor, as you say. One of
the reasons that I found it most interesting was that I studied the
Greater Red-browed Finch (as I love to call it!) for my honours project
in Newcastle in around 1995. So, I was very familiar with this bird in
the hand and it was quite a shock when I first handled Lessers. They are
a good 2 grams lighter than Greaters, which is quite a lot when you
consider that Greaters are only around 10 grams to start with! The
Lessers are noticeably brighter in colour, paler below, and brighter
above. They lack the green-golden mantle of the greaters. The other
interesting feature is that approximately 50% of birds have black
undertail coverts, the other 50% having grey undertail coverts like the
Greaters do. Now, aviculturalists swear black and blue that only the
males have black ut coverts. While I can't say that I know absolutely
that this is true, I'll be surprised if they aren't sexually dimorphic.
Surely this feature alone makes them different to Greater Red-brows.

There was one other feature that I believe to be consistently different
between the 2 subspecies. The Lesser seems to have a disproportionately
narrower bill than you would expect when compared to the Greater. We are
still in the process of analysing the measurement data.

Anyway, I agree that north Queensland has some wonderful finches,
certainly in comparison to finch-poor Griffith! Give me a Red-browed
Finch for a House Sparrow anyday!

Cheers,

Mick Todd
Griffith, NSW




At 09:18 PM 13/11/01 +1100, you wrote:
>   Hi All,
>   Of the nine native finches of FNQ, three, namely the Crimson,
> Masked and
> Red-browed, have local races with particularly attractive colours.
>   The back and mantle of Red-browed Finches from about Cooktown
> north are
> bright golden and glow in the sun. The scarlet browline becomes
> wider
> behind, and neck and throat are off-white rather than grey, altogether
> a
> brighter bird than the southern races, and it is smaller, thus the
> subspecific name of  "minor".
>   We saw a flock of about twenty behind the mangroves at Portland
> Roads last
> week, quite a sight.
>   The Cape York form "leucotis" of the Masked Finch is a
> richer brown than
> the  WA/NT race, and has white cheeks which accent the black face
> and yellow
> bill.. Seen near Lotusbird Lodge with Black-throated Finches
> (black-rumped
> race) in open woodland having been flushed from seeding grass on
> the
> roadside.
>    The beautiful "evangeline" is a white-bellied form
> of the Crimson Finch
> rather than the black-bellied, the latter occurring in WA/NT and
> north-eastern Qld south of Lakefield N.P.We mistakenly looked for
> evangelinae at the crocodile farm south of Cairns, finding
> the black-bellied instead.
>   The other six finches in FNQ are Double-barred Finch (white rumped
> race),
> yellow-bellied "clarescens" race of the Star Finch,
> Chestnut-breasted
> Mannikin, Gouldian, and Blue-faced Parrot finch. Other than the
> Blue-faced,
> seen on Mt. Lewis, these are variously more easily seen in the Top End
> or
> around Kunnunurra, or even as far south as Sydney.
>                                     
> Cheers
>                                               
> Michael
>
>
>
>
>
> Michael Hunter
> Mulgoa Valley
> 50km west of Sydney Harbour Bridge
>
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