Hi Joshua
I would have thought there were even more potential splits up in north
Queensland! How about the Atherton Thrush, the Brown Gerygone, the Atherton
Grey Fantail, even the Golden Whistler, which isn't even a subspecies looks a
bit different up there, and there's the Purple-necked Brush-Turkey. Then
there's the Cape York finches, White-eared Masked, White-bellied Crimson etc.
There may even be more. I think some good genetic work may have many more
splits yet to come!-Kevin Bartram
> From:
> To:
> Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2016 10:11:30 +0000
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Notes on Cape York Subspecies and Rarities
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> Max Breckenridge, Ashwin Rudder, Nathan Ruser and myself spent the first half
> of January up around Cape York and Cairns. I have prepared some notes on some
> of the new splits and mythical rarities around the area, along with our
> experiences. I am also happy to help out with further information regarding
> the below mentioned subspecies, etc. More information about our sightings and
> experiences over the whole 3 weeks can be found in our extensively detailed
> ~50 page trip report at
> http://www.cloudbirders.com/tripreport/repository/BERGMARK_Australia_1201_20152016.pdf
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> SPOTTED CATBIRD
> Likely split in the next version of IOC, the Cape York (Iron Range) form will
> be different to the Cairns form. As others have noted, the northern birds are
> much more skulky than their southern counterparts, however in Iron Range
> National Park we had multiple views, particularly around the Rainforest
> Campground and the start of the Coen Track nearby. They would tend to perch
> briefly in trees calling, then as soon as we got close they would fly away
> 50m, then keep calling. In all, not too hard to get a view of if you try.
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> HERBERTON FUSCOUS HONEYEATER
> Described as Fuscous, reassigned to Yellow-tinted, then switched back to
> Fuscous more recently, this strange intermediate population is quite
> variable, and certainly doesn’t fit well with either Fuscous or Yellow-tinted
> as a species. I believe work is currently being carried out on these birds by
> Lloyd Nielson, but in the meantime, the birds are not hard to find at all.
> Best spot is in the forested square along Wieland Road, just south of
> Herberton, but they are quite common through most wooded areas in the
> surrounding region, including along the main track through Wondecla State
> Forest.
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> BLACK TREECREEPER
> Not sure on whether this is likely to be split soon, if ever, but certainly
> the northern race of Brown Treecreeper is very different to the form down
> south (indeed, they were once different species). Best spot is the end of
> Pickford Road just north of Mareeba, and the first kilometre of the road into
> Mareeba Wetlands (we had a number of birds in this area). Apparently also at
> Wondecla State Forest, but we did not see them here (though we only visited
> for a short period of time).
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> RED BOOBOOK
> A tricky subspecies to pin down properly, as numerous individuals are hybrids
> with ocellata, particularly on Mount Lewis it seems. January is not the prime
> owl time, and understandably we heard one bird during our many nights
> spotlighting around Cairns. We did manage to get eyes on this bird on Mount
> Lewis, though it appears to be not a pure lurida. Simon Gorta and Andrew
> Walker are in the region this week, and a few days ago night found two
> probable hybrids at Wallaman Falls (one of them potentially pure, though it
> is unclear from photos at this stage). There are very few photos of pure
> birds (Geoff Jones has some great ones from Rose Gums
> (http://www.barraimaging.com.au/BIRD-FAMILIES-OF-THE-WORLD/Tinamous-To-Parrots/Owls-Family-Strigidae/Southern-Boobook-Ninox-boobook/i-NCsW9vn),
> but it is quite clear that you cannot count just any boobook you find in
> rainforest. The case for splitting in this case seems quite weak, however as
> Jeff Davies noted in a message to us, if Black-eared Miner is a species, Red
> Boobook is just as valid. Best sites are apparently Mount Lewis, Lake Eacham,
> Rose Gums, and the road to Tully Gorge.
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> TROPICAL ROSELLA
> Recent genetics have shown this form of Crimson Rosella is more distinct than
> Green Rosella is to the southern Crimson Rosella complex, so will likely be
> split in the near future. Unlike its southern counterparts, the ‘Tropical’
> Rosella is definitely not an easy bird to come by, and should be specifically
> targeted for anyone interested. Best spots are the Gourka Road / Bartle Frere
> Road (signposted as the former, Google Maps labels it the latter), and the
> Seamark Road / Turner Road / McKell Road / Mount Hypipamee area. We saw 2
> birds during our visit, and the differences really are quite obvious compared
> to the southern birds – darker back and facial patterns specifically. I heard
> today that Andrew and Simon saw some at both Mount Hypipamee and Hasties
> Swamp, though I suspect that they are very irregular at the latter site.
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> BUFF-BREASTED BUTTON-QUAIL
> At the time of writing, this species has not been reliably recorded around
> Cairns (or anywhere?) since 2011. Areas need to be found with sparse grass,
> unburnt on the lower slopes of hills. In the past, the best areas have been
> to the east of Lake Mitchell, however we were not able to locate any suitable
> habitat here when we checked, as the unusual early December rains had caused
> rapid grass growth. The far western boundaries of Mareeba Wetlands have been
> very good in the past, however current ownership does not allow access during
> the wet season, and hence reduces any chance of finding this species to
> almost zero. AWC land towards Mount Carbine contained the best habitat we
> could see from the road, however Lloyd Nielsen, Australia’s leading expert on
> this species, has advised that checking these areas in the past did not
> produce any birds. If you intend to search for this species, Lloyd is
> certainly the best person to get in contact with (and indeed, he thinks he
> may possibly have flushed one bird at the traditional “truck stop” site last
> year), but currently the species may be best searched for further afield,
> towards Coen, and others more central areas of Cape York.
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> ATHERTON QUAIL-THRUSH
> This seemingly cryptic bird was discovered in 2007 near Ravenshoe (see
> http://blogs.ecology-solutions.com.au/bird-o/2010/05/06/the-new-atherton-quail-thrush/),
> however all details have subsequently been suppressed, seemingly due to the
> observer having bad experiences with taxonomists wishing to collect
> specimens. Judging off available photos, a number of Australian experts agree
> that these abnormally rufous birds represent a new species of quail-thrush,
> but for any classification to be attempted, birds need to be caught,
> recorded, measured and have feathers taken. Note that a bird would not
> necessarily need to be collected. Initially, the bird was thought to be
> critically endangered, however exchanges with the finder (both by us, and
> other North Qld birders we have spoken with) indicate that in fact these
> birds are flourishing in the right areas, and are widespread around Ravenshoe
> (some birds apparently seen just outside town), and as far north as at least
> Dimbulah. Despite this, nobody has been privileged with site information,
> even almost a decade after discovery, and it appears the only way to find out
> more about this probable species is to locate some. A number of locals have
> searched for the quail-thrush every now and then, but as of yet, nobody has
> had success. This is likely due to a very small number of birdwatchers
> actually looking, since the area they are to be found is devoid of almost all
> other bird life, as we discovered over a three day search. Armed with
> multiple weeks of research and GIS data, correlating all available
> information as best we could, our group put a concerted effort into locating
> the quail-thrush. Despite not having success, we believe we were on the right
> track, and with a few more people looking, birds could be found over the next
> few years. This would allow research to be carried out, and probably result
> in the first bird to be described from Australia in a long, long time.
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> Information that we collected included:
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> 1: All the available photos online were taken in late November 2008,
> according to EXIF data still present on the shots. The habitat has been
> recently burnt, and so, by cross-referencing with burn scar data from
> firenorth.org.au, we narrowed down the most likely search areas.
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> 2: GIS satellite-based analysis of both the southern Spotted Quail-thrush and
> Buff-rumped Thornbill / Painted Button-quail (noted by the finder to be
> ‘surprisingly common’ in the areas he found quail-thrush.
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> 3: Geological and botanical maps based off what we could see visually in the
> photos. This was difficult online, but in the field we found a number of
> areas which matched exactly.
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> All in all, we decided the best way to search for these birds would be to
> focus on burnt areas. From experience with birds in NSW, they may well still
> be present in more densely-grassed habitat, however they are much easier to
> spot in recently burnt areas, being quite an unobtrusive bird, often easy to
> overlook. Those familiar with the very high-pitched contact call can’t go
> wrong by searching any good rocky areas of burnt ridgeline between Silver
> Valley and Herberton, however we picked out some prime areas we think warrant
> further searching. This map (http://i.imgur.com/exp8Sxg.jpg) highlights major
> areas which probably should be checked. We hiked up Mount Klaatsch (right
> marker at -17.459248, 145.301385), though the grass was very dense, and no
> areas of ground quite matched up to that available photos of the
> quail-thrush. If this area was burnt one year, it would be worth checking a
> few weeks afterwards. We also followed a number of the 4WD tracks visible on
> Google Maps to the west (left marker), though again found mostly quite dense
> habitat, needing a good fire to be suitable for searching the steep slopes.
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> There was a long stretch along Mt Misery Road (from about a kilometre south
> before it intersects Gibbs Creek all the way almost in to Irvinebank) which
> was unburnt, but looked relatively sparse, and perfect for quail-thrush which
> is easily accessible even without a 4WD. Further south, we had been following
> the road which runs west, then subsequently north from Silver Valley, and
> found a good patch of burnt bush along a ridge which we spent a good chunk of
> time searching, though no thrush. This was perfect habitat, and certainly any
> bits similar in the same general vicinity could very easily hold individuals
> (GPS: -17.593949, 145.276960).
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> Again, please feel free to contact us for further information – I will
> happily help out anyone who is intending to go and have a look for this
> species, and have been very interested in the form ever since I heard about
> it half a decade ago – email me at or contact
> Nathan Ruser, Max Breckenridge, or Ashwin Rudder.
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> _____________________________
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> As a side note, for those who followed ‘The Decline of Birding-Aus’ email
> thread, one of the key points noted was that the reduced use of BA in favour
> of Facebook has been cutting the number of recent trip reports and up-to-date
> gen available. I encourage everyone to have a look at www.cloudbirders.com,
> as it is an excellent website, allowing easy uploads of PDF files, or linking
> to a birding blog, etc. It has up-to-date information from all over the
> world, and is my go-to research base nowadays. Australia however, is quite
> underrepresented (eg: only 15 trip reports from 2015, and 12 of which were
> uploaded by companies such as Birdquest or Tropical Birding), however with
> more local contributors uploading reports, it could become very useful to
> Australian birders. Over the next few weeks I am intending to go through and
> upload all my more recent trip reports from the Gawler Ranges, Tasmania,
> Broome, Bowra and central west NSW, but if others follow suit over the next
> year or so, trip information like this will be easily accessible in the
> future.
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> Cheers, and good birding,
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>
> Josh
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