Re: Chris Coleborn?s friend?s observation of a plains-wanderer lying flat on
the ground when
approached.
The plains-wanderer?s powers of flight are not great, flying fairly slowly and
in a direct line not
unlike a crake. Living on the bare open plains this makes them vulnerable to
raptors such as black
and brown falcons and spotted harrier. The plains-wanderer relies solely on
camouflage to avoid
becoming a meal. At any sign of a raptor or human it will flatten itself on the
ground and become all
but invisible as described by Chris. The bright yellow legs are tucked
underneath and the female?s
red gorget is also hidden. It will not move unless it is about to be stepped on
or driven over.
I have accidentally flushed plains-wanderers while driving around the plains
during the day. They
usually fly about a hundred metres or so and drop down. If I did not take my
eyes off the spot where
a bird landed and drove straight to it, the bird would often be seen lying flat
on the ground. Plains-
wanderers are reluctant to fly a second time if they have been flushed once. My
observations suggest
this is also true of several species of button-quail. If a raptor has seen the
bird fly once, it is history
if it flies a second time.
The secretive nature of the plains-wanderer never ceases to amaze me. I came
across an adult
female plains-wanderer late one afternoon and stopped the vehicle immediately.
She was about
thirty metres ahead, lying flat on the ground. I was interested to see how they
feed and as most birds
don?t take much notice of stationary vehicles, I thought she would eventually
start feeding again if I
kept still. How wrong I was! After about 30 minutes of no movement at all she
started to bob her
head; then after an hour, as the shadows were increasing, she crept about a
foot along the ground
on her belly into the shadow. I had to leave but maybe if I had been another
twenty or thirty metres
away she would have started feeding. There are cryptic birds!
Plains-wanderer numbers are very low in the Riverina as the
mother-of-all-droughts continues;
however, a couple of inches of rain fell on some parts of the Hay plain last
week and hopefully we?ll
see more during the winter.
Cheers
Philip Maher
Australian Ornithological Services P/L
PO Box 385
South Yarra 3141
Victoria Australia
From: "Chris Coleborn" <>
Date: Fri, 4 May 2007 15:21:37 +1000
Hello All,
Recently I was speaking to a local farmer who occasionally sees Plains-wanders
on his Nth Vic
property. Awhile back while driving through a sparse grassland paddock he
observed a Plains-
wanderer hurrying away from him. He turned aside to get a closer look at it
and was intrigued to
observe the bird lay completely prostrate on the ground, with its neck and head
stretched out. It
made the bird very difficult to see. It was behaviour a bit similar to what I
have seen Bush Stone-
curlews do at times too. Both, with their cryptic markings seem to be
'absorbed' into their
surrounding habitat when they adopt this posture.
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