birding-aus

Urban Bush Thickknees

To: Birding Aus <>
Subject: Urban Bush Thickknees
From: L&L Knight <>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:46:40 +1000
I think the open and well-lit areas also have a good supply of insects for them to eat.

On 17/04/2008, at 7:15 PM, Andrew Stafford wrote:
This thread has arisen in various forms on several occasions but there are a
lot of new contributors on the list. Bush Stone-curlews are common in
Brisbane including in and around the city heart - I've seen them recently in the park opposite gate 2 at The Gabba cricket ground; on Countess St above Roma St Parklands (these would be Laurie's birds I presume); in New Farm Park and even roosting below the window of an entirely concreted industrial building in Birubi St, Coorparoo; as well as around St Lucia where they are nearly impossible to miss, usually around the car park below the Hartley
Teakle building on the UQ campus but also elsewhere.

When I was driving cabs at night around the city some years ago, there
weren't many suburbs where I didn't come across them, including in suburban estates where there are no shortage of cats and dogs. So the interesting query to me is not the name (Thick-knee is falling out of favour anyway) but why they've thrived in northern Australian cities while sliding towards extinction in the south. I suspect they have successfully adapted to urban life while being another victim of land clearance in woodlands inland, and note that in the suburbs they are almost always found in open and well-lit
areas, which presumably helps protect them from predators.

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