Steve's comments are essentially true for the area around Sydney that you
are looking at Anthony.
With practice Buff-rumped and Yellow-rumped can be picked on call, though
habitat also helps as the latter are often in more open areas, like
paddocks, ovals, etc. However, I have been fooled by Brown Thornbills which
are very good mimics, doing a call very similar to a Buff-rumped.
Yellow Thornbills are common in urban areas and the coastal subspecies is
very yellow. The further west you go in NSW they get paler, and the most
distinctive mark is the ear marking. You then have the intergrade of Inland
and Brown Thornbills (which you won't have to worry about yet).
On habitat, recent work I did in the catchment areas behind Wollongong (pre
fire) and on the coastal flats had the following trends:
Brown - virtually all habitats, though not in highly disturbed urban areas
with no shrub layer
Yellow-rumped - Only in cleared areas
Buff-rumped - Only in woodland above the escarpment
Yellow - Only on the coastal flats, and often in highly disturbed urban
areas (including Casuarina)
Striated - In tall moist forest above and below the escarpment.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
eter
From:
To:
Subject: Re: [BIRDING-AUS] Thornbills
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 15:58:20 +1000
G'day Anthony
Thornbills can be hard. My guess from your call description is Brown
Thornbill.
I find habitat and behaviour are really useful guides to thornbill species
down
my way.
Striated are always in tree canopies and usually in small groups.
Brown are usually in the shrub layer and typically in pairs.
Yellow-rumped and Buff-rumped both seem to spend quite a bit of time on the
ground. Probably the Yellow-rumped spend more time on the ground than the
Buff-rumped. I have trouble picking the calls of these two. They both
often
occur together or in feeding flocks with other species (Speckled Warblers,
Southern Whiteface, Red-browed Finches etc.).
Yellow Thornbills are rather rare in south-west Victoria - at least the
wetter
areas. I have a couple of records from the Grampians which I now wonder
about.
Only a couple of records from other areas I'm confident in. We did have a
small
population in Hamilton - in the Parklands for those who know it - but they
seem
to have gone. They really are yellow and quite distinct from Brown and
Striated. My limited expereince is that they are mostly canopy feeders and
often alone or in pairs. I'm hopeless at describing calls but they have a
distinct insect-like call different to the Stirated's. Most guides say
they
prefer fern-leaved wattles but I can't comment on that.
Then there are the dry country thornbills....
Cheers
Steve
Hamilton, Vic.
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