birding-aus

couple of questions

To: Tony Lawson <>,
Subject: couple of questions
From: Sonja Ross <>
Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:04:24 +1000
I wonder if Q2 is anything to do with the amount of hot sunlight the birds have 
been exposed to over a long time.  For example, compare the summer Perth had 
compared to the summer on the east coast.

Sonja Ross


On 26/07/2011, at 1:19 PM, Tony Lawson wrote:

> A friend recently posed these questions.  Does anyone have a good answer?
> 
> Tony
> 
> 
> 
> Both were questions asked yesterday at a course I'm teaching, and I can't 
> satisfactorily answer either.
> 
> 1. Why are NZ birds generally less brightly coloured than east coast 
> Australian ones?
> 
>> A couple of possible responses occur to me:
>> a. It's a false premise - there are too few terrestrial native NZ species to 
>> make a valid comparison.
>> b. NZ species tend to be dense forest dwellers, where colour is less 
>> relevant in communication than in the open forests and woodlands of eastern 
>> Australia. But since I haven't even set foot in our nearest Gondwanan 
>> neighbour I'm not even sure if my starting point is correct.
>> In any case I don't find either response very satisfactory.
> 
> 2. What is it about WA that 'fades' birds?! eg Yellow-tailed to White-tailed 
> Black-cockies; Eastern Yellow to Western Yellow and White-breasted Robins.
> 
>> It's such a small sample size that I'm forced to concede that it's probably 
>> coincidence, but that doesn't satisfy me either.
>> 
> 
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