Dear Birders,
I was recently alerted by Del Richards of a new birding resource for those
interested in the birds of the Wet Tropics which basically involves the area
around Cairns and the Atherton Tablelands. Given the number of endemic birds in
the area (and its scenic nature) this is one that cannot be ignored by any even
half serious birder.
This new resource is a DVD produced by Jack Leighton (Phone (07)4095 8425 or
It shows short video clips of 100 birds
found in the wet tropics. These range from OK to quite outstanding. It is a
problem for amateur producers like Jack that many of us have been brought up on
the quite exceptional quality of David Attenborough however while the whole of
the 2 DVD set is not up to that standard there are certainly parts that are
comparable.
There is a short verbal introduction and then it is entirely over to the birds
to entertain and inform, us with their behaviour and their song. Some of the
most memorable sequences are where the bird being filmed is also singing, for
instance the enormous effort that the Rose-crowned Fruit-dove appears to put
into it's singing is wonderful to watch. In other cases film of the birds has
been dubbed with separately recorded song. Each species is introduced with a
very short segment showing a floral motif and the name of the bird to follow,
some of these are quite spectacular and provide another reason for visiting the
wet tropics.
There are too many wonderful moments to list them all but highlights that come
to mind are:-
a.. Pacific Baza calling and wing flapping,
b.. Southern Cassowary bathing,
c.. Nest building by Wompoo Fruit-dove,
d.. Little Bronze-cuckoo eating grubs,
e.. Female Lovely Fairy-wren taking food into it's nest,
f.. Pair of Barking Owls preening one another,
g.. Noisy Pitta feeding chicks and removing faecal sacks,
h.. Buff-breasted Paradise-kingfisher, and
i.. Yellow-throated Scrub-wren calling.
In a number of cases female and juvenile birds are shown in addition to adult
males. These are indicated by on-screen text. All birds are shown perched which
is understandable given the difficulty of filming birds in flight however it
does limit the appreciation of those birds, such as raptors, which are more
often seen in flight.
I am not a regular watcher of DVDs but found I could throw this into my laptop
and it ran on Windows Media not trouble. For anyone wanting to get a feel for
the jizz of the wet tropic birds this is an invaluable tool. I felt that at $50
including postage it was very good value. Get in touch with Jack direct to buy
a copy.
For the record I have no financial interest in this product - just a very
satisfied customer!
Regards
Peter Marsh
==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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