Hello Lorne and finch-lovers,
The biggest flocks of finches that I have seen have been on the Ivanhoe
Plain north of Kununurra in the East Kimberley district of NE Western
Australia. During 1998-2000 I worked for the Tropical Savannas
Co-operative Research Centre on the ecology of the Star Finch and
Crimson Finch. I spent the wet season of 1999-2000 at Kununurra.
Mixed flocks of finches made up of Star Finches, Chestnut-breasted
Mannikins and Yellow-rumped Mannikins with a few other species in
smaller numbers could number in the uncountable high hundreds to
thousands! My attempts to count them were futile! I would guess that
there were thousands. They would tend to congregate along the roadsides
in the irrigation country where they would feed on seeding Urochloa
mosambicensis, an introduced grass species.
Numbers were highest outside the actual breeding season when birds
congregated from far afield. I've seen attempts to count the numbers but
to be honest I'm sceptical that the numbers could be counted accurately.
So from my personal experience I'd say the Star Finch.
On the other hand, I suspect that no finch in Australia can disperse as
far as the Zebra Finch so I suspect that they would have the potential
to congregate into the largest numbers of any Australian finches. I'll
be very interested to hear what sort of numbers anyone has seen Zebras in!
Cheers,
Mick
PS. Great question!
Michael Todd
Wildlifing
Images & Sounds of Nature
Latest Additions: New Caledonia- Kagu, Crow Honeyeater, New Caledonian Grassbird
www.wildlifing.com
Toronto, NSW, Australia
04101 23715
Lorne Johnson wrote:
Hello birdlovers... Lorne here...
I was thinking about wild finch flocks the other day. What species in
Australia tends to form the biggest flocks? Zebra? Has anyone seen
huge flocks of finches anywhere?
Ta.
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