Trans-equatorial Migrants

[Frank O'Connor <>]

Thanks to all the people who replied, and particularly to Murray Lord who
pointed me to two papers published in Emu.

Dingle, Hugh (2004), The Australo-Papuan bird migration system: another
consequence of Wallace's Line, Emu, 2004, 104, 95-108, CSIRO
Publishing

My assumption that it was 10 trans-equatorial "land bird"
migrants to mainland Australia was wrong.  It included PNG.

The paper includes a table :

Oriental Cuckoo
White-throated Needletail
Fork-tailed Swift
Yellow Wagtail
Grey Wagtail
Barn Swallow
Red-rumped Swallow
Gray's Warbler
Oriental Reed-Warbler
Grey-spotted Flycatcher

Note that the table in the paper has the wrong scientific names for the
two wagtails.

Of these ten, you can consider six of them as being regular migrants to
mainland Australia (seven if you split Yellow Wagtail into Eastern Yellow
Wagtail and Green-headed Yellow Wagtail).  Grey Wagtail and Oriental
Reed-warbler have occurred but could not be considered regular.  I
am not aware of any Australian mainland records for Gray's Warbler and
Grey-spotted Flycatcher.

I suggested Dollarbird and Eastern Koel.  Apparently the Australian
birds don't cross the equator.

Other people have suggested :

Garganey - The list turned out to be "land birds", so would not
be one of the 10.  They used to be regular migrants in very small
numbers as late as the 1990's but I haven't heard of many records in the
last decade.

Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo - Rare in Malaysia & Singapore. I don't
know if this means 'vagrant' or regular in very small numbers, and I
don't know if they would be Australian birds.

Rainbow Bee-eater - I don't believe these cross the equator in regular
numbers.
Sacred Kingfisher - ditto.
Glossy Swiftlet - This is a vagrant to Australia, not regular

The second paper is a "Rowley Review" paper in Emu more
recently.  This is available on the web :

 http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=MU08010.pdf

Dingle, Hugh, Bird migration in the southern hemisphere: a review
comparing continents, Emu, 2008, 108, 341-359, CSIRO Publishing

_________________________________________________________________
Frank O'Connor           Birding WA http://birdingwa.iinet.net.au
Phone : (08) 9386 5694              Email :

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