Hi Evan,
Yes, Pied Currawongs do migrate in a rather complex fashion. Some
references suggest a north-south movement, other references suggest
an altitudinal movement while others describe winter flocking in
urban areas. Here in the Blue Mountains the main movements appear to
be in an east-west direction. I generally see large numbers flying
west through Katoomba during the autumn-winter months. Where they're
going, I have no idea.
Some years ago, John Farrell at Springwood NSW did a study of their
migration patterns and while the findings are too complicated to
easily summarise here they were published as the following paper:
Farrell, JR, (1995) 'Movement patterns of Pied Currawongs Strepera
graculina in central western New South Wales'. Corella 19(3): pp
95-102.
For such a common bird we know so little.
This morning the Yellow-faced/White-naped Honeyeater migration was
only slightly less impressive than the huge numbers I reported last
Saturday, with around 5850 birds per hour flying over my street. As
soon as the sky became cloudy about 11am, migration stopped.
cheers,
Carol
Katoomba
Blue Mountains, NSW
At 7:56 AM +1000 25/4/06, Evan Beaver wrote:
AS I sat on my balcony yesterday afternoon I watched a 'flock' of
Currawongs, probably 45 strong flying through. They were all headed the same
direction, and used all the same trees on their way through, but were only
very loosely flocking. Either they were migrating (South West) from the
plains into the hills (which seems unlikely) or something was going on that
they all knew about.
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