Has anyone else seen one in this area? Could it perhaps be an aviary escapee?
This is actually a really interesting question. Turning the question on its
head: if the bird is not an escapee where is it from?
A quick look over some recent records (from Birds Australia's Atlas and Eremaea) the nearest population to Mildura is not from Victoria but NSW, with RTBC being recorded along the Darling River near Menindee and Billilla Station at Wilcannia.
In South Australia there is a record from near Swan Reach on the Murray, and
from Keith and Bordertown.
While in Victoria there are records from the near Kaniva and Nhill. (There is
also an historical BOCA record from 1945 at Flagstaff Hill at Wyperfeld
National Park.)
So I would suggest that the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo in Mildura is probably
not from Victoria but from the NSW population, moving south along the Darling
River.
Cheers,
Tim Dolby
-----Original Message-----
From: on behalf of Paul Dodd
Sent: Sun 7/29/2007 8:52 PM
To:
Subject: [Birding-Aus] Red-tailed Black Cockatoo in Mildura?
Hi everyone,
We're just back from our weekend birding in Mildura, Hattah-Kulkyne National
Park and surrounds. I'll detail what we saw in a separate post in the next
few days. However, one remarkable sighting was a Red-tailed Black Cockatoo
on a street light on Deakin Avenue, Mildura, very close to the city centre
(around the Eleventh St intersection). I was driving from the airport to the
city centre when I noticed the bird on a street light on the other side of
the road (actually all the street lights are in the median strip in the
centre of the road, extending to the right or left over the inbound and
outbound lanes). I didn't tell my wife, what I'd seen - only that I had seen
something interesting and needed to turn around to get another look. After
turning around, I pulled over where I thought I'd seen the Cockatoo, but
couldn't immediately see it, so I got my binoculars and camera out of the
car. Meanwhile, my wife was looking at the streetlights and said that she'd
just seen a Red-tailed Black Cockatoo fly off! It was only then that I told
her that that was what I had seen... Unfortunately, neither of us got a
chance to take a photo before the bird flew.
This strikes me a quite an unusual sighting - I checked "The New Atlas of
Australian Birds" and there seems to be no record for Mildura - also the
Pizzey and Knight field guide has no mention of this species being found in
this area.
Has anyone else seen one in this area? Could it perhaps be an aviary escape?
Or were both Ruth and myself seeing things - quite independently of course!
Thanks,
Paul Dodd
-----Original Message-----
From: on behalf of Paul Dodd
Sent: Sun 7/29/2007 8:52 PM
To:
Subject: [Birding-Aus] Red-tailed Black Cockatoo in Mildura?
Hi everyone,
We're just back from our weekend birding in Mildura, Hattah-Kulkyne National
Park and surrounds. I'll detail what we saw in a separate post in the next
few days. However, one remarkable sighting was a Red-tailed Black Cockatoo
on a street light on Deakin Avenue, Mildura, very close to the city centre
(around the Eleventh St intersection). I was driving from the airport to the
city centre when I noticed the bird on a street light on the other side of
the road (actually all the street lights are in the median strip in the
centre of the road, extending to the right or left over the inbound and
outbound lanes). I didn't tell my wife, what I'd seen - only that I had seen
something interesting and needed to turn around to get another look. After
turning around, I pulled over where I thought I'd seen the Cockatoo, but
couldn't immediately see it, so I got my binoculars and camera out of the
car. Meanwhile, my wife was looking at the streetlights and said that she'd
just seen a Red-tailed Black Cockatoo fly off! It was only then that I told
her that that was what I had seen... Unfortunately, neither of us got a
chance to take a photo before the bird flew.
This strikes me a quite an unusual sighting - I checked "The New Atlas of
Australian Birds" and there seems to be no record for Mildura - also the
Pizzey and Knight field guide has no mention of this species being found in
this area.
Has anyone else seen one in this area? Could it perhaps be an aviary escape?
Or were both Ruth and myself seeing things - quite independently of course!
Thanks,
Paul Dodd
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
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3:50 PM
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