It was still there yesterday when a student and I stopped in
the middle of a welcome swallow nestling study for coffee
and cake. 10m away from the table in Church Street,
Brighton, feeding and preening and calling wonderfully in a
South Australian Yellow Gum outside the Botticelli
restaurant.
It's now been there, or nearby, for 9 weeks. A short-term
reason for its presence is the lack of nectar in central
Victoria
One evolutionary reason was proposed by Philip Veerman in
his "Canberra Birds: a report on the first 18 years of the
garden bird survey". He suggests they have to leave Canberra
for the winter because of their lack of head feathers -
exposing them to cold.
OK said one of my scientific co-friends of Bayside's Native
Wildlife. But why did they evolve with no head feathers ?
(Like the white ibis - which also has no obvious? reason for
doing so - and like the vultures which could get very messy
doing what they do)
And another, Pat Carden, added 'And why do they have that
KNOB on the bill?"
Answers to me and the world as soon as possible please.
Michael Norris
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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