Feral Chestnut-breasted Mannikins in Melbourne

[Lawrie Conole <>]

Back to birds for a moment ...

I just got back from inspecting a quarry site in the suburb of Scoresby in the east of Melbourne, and was surprised to find a couple of Chestnut-breasted Mannikins lobbing about in the weedy edges of an old brick pit waterbody.  This is not a local species, but has turned up from cagebird origins (one presumes) over the years.

Looking up the Vic atlas for this species I found a few old records for Jell's Park nearby, and then noticed something odd.  Of the couple of dozen records in the database of this species, nearly all of them are from 1977 - spread out from Clifton Hill in the north to Edithvale in the south - what on earth is going on there?

L.

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Lawrie Conole
Senior Ecologist
Ornithology & Terrestrial Ecology

Ecology Australia Pty. Ltd.
Flora and Fauna Consultants
88B Station Street
FAIRFIELD VIC 3078 Australia
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