Sacred Kingfisher

All posts tagged Sacred Kingfisher

In Springs New Things – The New Generation of Birds

Posted by aussiebirder on October 24, 2019
Posted in: Australia, Australian Birds, Australian wildlife, Bird watching, Birding, Birds, Birdwatching, Fauna, National Parks, Nature, Nature reserve, Outings, Royal National park, shorebirds, Sydney, Uncategorized, waders, water birds, wildlife. Tagged: , , , .

Sacred Kingfisher

Now here we are well into Spring, where we hear the father whistlers sing, announcing to the world they  bring, their joy for a new and marvelous thing…  new life ready to begin.

Spring is a beautiful time of year to go out birding. There is so much activity and song in the bush as new families are established. For some it is their first season, and others they have lost count, having brought possibly a hundred new lives into the world. This activity is centered around nesting, providing for the nest, protecting the nest and training the new nestlings/fledglings. In this post I will share some of these activities I noticed this week,

1. Nesting: Eggs are laid by female bird and then incubated as she keeps them warm and covers them with her body to protect them. Sometimes the male may help, depending on the specie. In many cases, such as with the Black-winged Stilt which are nesting in Olympic Park, Sydney, the male will keep watch to ward off intruders. The nest is a simple hollow on dry grass next to the lake.

Thankfully, special artificial islands were created for nesting well away from nosy birders, which have proven to be a great success. Yes blue-green algae has been a problem after a hot winter drought. 

2. Protecting Nest, Nestlings and Fledglings: There is a lot of aggressive activity at the moment between species that usually co inhabit territories. We saw a few weeks ago the merciless aggression of the Magpie placing a 100 meter no go perimeter around its nest. Here I watched a Silver Gull continuously chase a Blacked-winged Stilt at the edge of the lake. The Gull was protecting its immature youngster but the Stilt was protecting its nest with his mate sitting on it by the lake. Both these birds are bold and can be aggressive. However, in the end the Gull moved its youngster away from the nest and peace prevailed.

After the ordeal, the Gull parents were confronted with a hungry junior, and try to avoid its cries. One of the joys of parenting no doubt! Note the classic bowing and bobbing of the youngsters head, seen in many species of water birds when begging.

The two most intelligent bird families clashed as this immature Australian Raven was attacked and turned away by this Australian Magpie male, obviously protecting its nest. Thankfully it did not see my wife and I as a threat.

3. Feeding the Nestlings/Fledglings: In many Australian species this is done primarily by the male and relatives, as is the training of the Fledgling, especially with the Magpie and Kingfisher. Here a Sacred Kingfisher catches a worm and waits for the juvenile to come to it and then passes it to the juvenile to eat.

Adult Sacred Kingfisher
Juvenile Sacred Kingfisher

4. Training: It is usually the male who models feeding and behaviour, which shows to us humans the importance of fathers being present and being good role models to their children. Children get much of their self identity and self confidence from the dad. These two juvenile Magpies are out on an excursion with their dad. As he feeds them they learn. Note how only one takes the initiative to follow dad and follows in his shadow. It so reminds me of my eldest son during his early years.

juvenile Magpies waiting in the shade.
one goes to folloe dad.
note juvenile is brown and has a dark eye and dull beak.
following dad
learning from dad

Here we see the youngsters decision to follow dad pays off as he gets a treat from dad as a reward for his following. I love the fact that no coercion is used in their training, those who want to learn do, and those who don’t there is later on when they are better prepared.

The Australian Wood Duck family is a beautiful example of the perfect family, with both parents faithful for life, devoted to each other and to raising their family together. The father leads the family to safety and to good feeding grounds. This clutch produced 14 live babies, and was one of two that I saw in the Royal National Park this week. The family strayed onto the road so dad and mum led them back down onto the green flats by the river. Thankfully, in this peaceful family, these ducklings learn to forage very quickly and less parental training is required. 

As you watch the Wood Ducks come into their grazing area listen and you will hear an immature Laughing Kookaburra practicing his laugh. Unfortunately he eluded me for some time.

As an aside, this flock of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo flew over at great height. It is always a treat to see this bird, and especially to hear its unique call. Listen as they fly over. You may see some touches of yellow on their ears and tail.

As I have shared in recent weeks some birds develop breeding plumage during their breeding season, and of course the Superb Fairy-wren is no exception, being in full colour which would lure any available female. His lady may already be sitting on the nest somewhere nearby as he hunts for food.

One of the delights of not having to work during the week is I get to see birds that may not normally be seen due to the high people presence in National Parks and Reserves during weekends. This pair of Wonga Pigeon are a good example of stumbling upon a great find. This rainforest pigeon is sometimes seen by the river banks at Wattle Flat in the late afternoon grazing, always the same pair. I love the arrow like markings on their under body. They are so quiet that you could easily miss them.

Wonga Pigeon
Wonga Pigeon pair

Finally, to conclude is this series of the very shy Kookaburra flying off:

The importance of good parenting and its ongoing effects well into the life of the child are emphasized in recent research. The child carries the experiences of their upbringing into the rest of their life having a considerable influence on their well-being. This includes physical, emotional, mental, sexual and social health, including longevity. This YouTube video from one of my studies sheds light on this, and the need to instruct our children and grandchildren with gentle kind love.

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” – Ephesians 6:4 (MEV)

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, lest they be discouraged..” – Colossians 3:21 (MEV)

“He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect.” – Timothy 3:4 (NIV)

Have a wonderful week! If this is your first time visiting my blog, why not visit my Home Page and check out my birding website for more birding information and encouraging stuff. Yes, there are still more books left for sale to make a positive influence in the life of your special young person and for that Special Christmas Gift. I have just about finished editing my second and third book, but it will be next year for printing.

NOTE: All photos, videos and music used on this website are photographed, composed, performed  by the site owner and remains his copyrighted property, unless otherwise stated. The use of any material that is not original material of the site owner is duly acknowledged as such. © W. A. Hewson 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019.

 

Elusive Birds Many Seldom See – Freshwater Birding

Posted by aussiebirder on November 2, 2018
Posted in: Australia, Australian Birds, Australian wildlife, Bird watching, Birding, Birds, Birdwatching, Holidays, National Parks, Nature, Nature reserve, Outings, Sydney, Uncategorized, water birds, wetlands, wildlife. Tagged: , , , , , , .
Pink-eared Duck

This week as my wife and I were accessing difficult birding areas, I realised just how elusive and fearful of humans our fresh water birds are, and because of this how many non-birders would probably never laid eyes on some of the most beautiful and unique birds in our country of Australia. One such duck, the Pink Eared Duck (above) is a good example. These unusual ducks filter water for micro marine organisms and insects using their purpose built spatulated broad bill.

The Pink-eared Duck gets its name from a pink marking on the side of its head which is smaller or absent in females and absent in juveniles. They are mostly found in inland fresh water lakes throughout the Australian continent and is endemic to Australia. It is often found in large flocks of hundreds as we observed last weekend…

Pink-eared Duck
Pink-eared Duck
Pink-eared Duck
Pink-eared Duck

We were doubly blessed to see two juvenile Pink-eared Ducks for the first time ever. Click on photos to enlarge them.

Another rarely noticed fresh water duck which keeps its distance from humans (on the other side of the lake) is the Australasian Shoveler, also endemic and sports a very similar spatulated bill to our previous duck. The male is the more colourful and the female mainly brown. Note how it sweeps the water filtering it for its food, allowing the water to pass out. These are usually seen in small family groups.

Australasian Shoveler male
Australasian Shoveler male
Australasian Shoveler female
Australian Shoveler pair

One of the most popular freshwater ducks which are found in very large flocks in northern Australia and in some of our lakes and dams here in our state also, is the Plumed Whistling Duck. These are migratory as they return to the top end in the wet season of summer to breed.

You may remember seeing this video clip from a previous post, highlighting the cacophony of sound the whistling of thousands of ducks can produce. 

The most elusive and human sensitive duck we have encountered and laboured to see is of course the Blue-billed Duck. The bill of the males during breeding glows bright blue. The male is distinctly different to female, the female being very similar to the female and juvenile of the Musk Duck, another fresh water elusive duck, and can be often difficult from a distance to tell them apart. Both the Blue-billed and Musc Ducks share very similar characteristics which I will share later.

Males in foreground females in background
Hardhead male and Blue-billed Duck male

The Musk Duck gets its name from the musk like scent the male liberates from a gland on its rump, it sports an unusual leathery lobe, and because of its greasy grey appearance is always difficult to photograph from a distance. 

The Blue-billed and Musc Ducks are often found together in family groups well away from human approach. These birds spend almost all of their life on the water, they sleep afloat (see Blue-billed photo above). Both birds are identified by the fact they float low in the water, they have large splaying tails which the males use to attract females, they both have long involved courtship displays and are endemic to Australia. I managed to get some pics (from a distance) of a male doing a courtship display with his followers looking on as he kicked, turned, rolled onto his back and splayed his tail in the water.

Courtship display by a male Musk Duck
Courtship display by a male Musk Duck
Courtship display by a male Musk Duck

The Australian Shelduck is a duck often only seen in family groups and not commonly seen on the coast being more of an inland bird to the southern part of Australia. We often only find the occasional bird at a wetland or lake but not in  any number though their numbers are always increasing and are of little concern. In this case the white surrounding the eye is the female.

One duck most people here in NSW would not have seen because it only lives in the far north of Australia is the Radjah Shelduck which we have posted here in our far north travels earlier this year.

Two other birds only found in Far North Queensland that I also featured in previous posts are the Cotton Pygmy Goose and the Green Pygmy Goose which are extremely elusive, but are called geese rather than ducks, but are elusive, fresh water and seldom seen, so included them.

The Wandering Whistling Duck, which lives up to its name, as it is not endemic to Australia, but is found in south-east Asia and moves about in northern Australia, occasionally seen as a vagrant here. It is found in large flocks similar to its Plumed cousin.

Wandering Whistling Duck
Wandering Whistling Duck

The Hardhead is an Australia’s most common diving duck (endemic to Australia) similar to the Blue-billed Duck (also a diving duck) but more common. It is not as shy as the above but can be. The male is identified by the white eye and the female by the brown eye. These birds do not swim as low in the water as Blue-bills but are often found with them and look similar from the distance. The Blue-bills keep their tail low in the water unlike the Hardhead.

The other ducks such as Australian Wood Duck, Chestnut Teal, Grey Teal and Pacific Black Duck are very common and not listed as elusive or rarely seen. The Grey Teal is apparently our most abundant duck. However, our most endangered and rare Duck is the Freckled Duck. Posted as vulnerable in our state, but is most endangered of all our ducks as it inhabits swamps and lakes inland, and when these dry up it moves towards the coast. It is only found in the southern part of our continent but not Tasmania.

All of the above ducks have had to photographed from a distance in a fresh water lake, swamp or lagoon, the Hardheads being the not so shy and more frequently seen. Many in the general public think ducks eat small fish and only small marine creatures, however, ducks are mostly omnivorous and feed on insects, seeds, grains, grass, water weeds, mollusks and what ever they can find. They do not normally feed on fish. As we saw above, those ducks that have been given purpose built bills such as the Pink-eared and Shoveler extract most of their nutrient directly from filtering the water, for crustaceans, molluscs, fresh water plankton and insects. Last weekend we saw many different species resting together in the middle of the lake all on friendly terms, as each kept its distance from the other.

There is safety in numbers and this was well demonstrated as we approached the lake. The first warnings alerted those who were sleeping and not facing our way. This caused some to give an alarm call and fly off, while others (the Pink-eared flock) took off and circled the lake several times, as they would for a raptor’s appearance and finally resettle in another lake nearby. Others would just swim further to the other side of the lake, keeping an eye on us. The flock is a safety structure for many reasons, especially in the harsh country of Australia. This is one reason why many of our birds can learn multiplicity of bird languages and can also be taught to speak words (Parrots, Budgies and Cockatoos) as they combine with other flocks and learn their local lingo. By pooling their resources they are able to stay safe and find food, water, companionship and mates especially in drought times. We do the same when we pool our resources as a family or community, whatever that may look like. Sharing our knowledge and experiences helps our family flock do life better. It is for this reason I exhort fathers in particular to share their life with their children while they are young, it is so important, and the children hunger for it. My book is just another way of helping dads do this well as it is full of Godly advice without being religious

“And now a word to you parents. Don’t keep on scolding and nagging your children, making them angry and resentful. Rather, bring them up with the loving discipline the Lord himself approves, with suggestions and godly advice.” – Ephesians 6:4 (Living Bible)

“A wise teacher makes learning a joy;” – Proverbs 15:2

“Teach a child to choose the right path, and when he is older, he will remain upon it.” – Proverbs 22:6

Have a wonderful and restful weekend. We are facing a heatwave today with total fire ban which is not good for the many birds nesting after recent rains. Breeding numbers here remain down this year also.

If this is your first visit to my blog, please take a minute to check out my website Homepage menu and helpful birding and counselling info. Check out  my unique book which can be purchased through secure PayPal here online on my BirdBook page.

NOTE: All photos, videos and music used on this website are photographed, composed, performed  by the site owner and remains his copyrighted property, unless otherwise stated. The use of any material that is not original material of the site owner is duly acknowledged as such. © W. A. Hewson 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018