Gday,
I have been absent from this list for sometime now but I have some
observations on whip birds which might be useful. They provoke several
questions on my part but that will come a little later.
Having lived at my Wyoming NSW abode for over 30 years the sound of whip
birds was never far away although I admit that, as pretty much a non
bird watcher, I never payed much attention to exactly when the birds
were present. There is a small area of natural bushland across the road.
In 2005 the council built a high lintel wall opposite my place to
protect the old excavated wall from collapse. This had some impact on
the geography and the loose wildlife corridor adjoining Berrys Head and
Narara Ck.
However it was a little before Xmas 08 that our resident "lot" of whip
birds moved in. I didn't pay much attention at first but as time went by
I realised that the male calls were different at different times of the
day, so I began recording them. At first I thought we had two males that
were attracted to a pile of blue tarp in my next door's car port as
their calls were quite different.
On investigation it turned out that the males were instead attracted to
a double sided mirror. The male would give his "whip" call and then race
around to the other side only to be confronted by his own image again.
Must have been very confusing for them.
I finally removed the mirror this afternoon as I have enough recordings
and I hope next door's cat doesn't have enough bird in its tummy. ;-)
(last moment realisation)
So over the past weeks I've become much more diligent in observing and
recording, and I would be 95% sure that we now have three distinct
monogamous pairs of whip birds visiting our garden.
I can clearly distinguish the male "whip" call from the female response
and can give evidence at:
http://www.adderley.net.au/pterazoo/birds/whipbirds/
Please listen to these calls very carefully as you will hear three
distinctly different male calls accompanied by three distinctive female
answers.
Over several days' observation it seems that the pairs are, in fact,
monogamous.
One question remains: isn't it a little late in the season for whip
birds to be courting? The bird books seem to indicate that courting
finishes around Xmas.
Cheers,
Peter Adderley
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birding-aus.blogspot.com
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