June 2019 Birding Brisbane Birds and Birdwatching in the River City Volume 1, Issue 6 A Milestone for the Atlas of the Birds of Brisbane The Atlas of the Birds of for lorikeets or a fond- Brisbane, brings together ness for falcons? The data from eBird into a Atlas needs your help! user-friendly package Pick your favourite Inside this issue: that birders can explore group of birds and start and use to aid their bird- writing. Contact one of ing, as well as promote the editors, Richard conservation. The Atlas Fuller or Louis Back- In-depth bird news 1 is providing information strom for more infor- on the distribution, mation on how to get Big Day report 4 abundance, breeding, started (see back cover). eBird skills: Locations 6 seasonality and trends for every bird species If writing species ac- known to have occurred counts sounds daunt- Mystery Photo 6 in Brisbane and adjacent ing, that’s fine too – Contributing to the 6 Coral Sea waters. please look around the Atlas website and let us have Undersurveyed Atlas 7 Last week, the Atlas any feedback on the Square: Black Soil passed a huge milestone texts that are up. From the Atlas: Com‐ 7 – 50 draft species ac- boundary will make their mon Myna counts written! This is a Finally, the easiest way way into the Atlas dataset, List of Observers 10 great achievement, but to contribute to the Atlas and provide critical infor- more than 350 accounts is by going out and bird- mation on the status of our remain to be written. It’s ing! Any checklists sub- wonderful local birdlife. up to you: do you have a mitted to eBird from Highlights: passion for pittas, a love within the Brisbane city Story by Louis Backstrom · Rare honeyeaters grace Brisbane · Big Day in SEQ nets 184 Bird news, May 2019 species Like April, May was a happy. · eBird locations relatively subdued Rare honeyeaters were · Contributing to the Atlas of the Birds of Brisbane month for Brisbane rari- the order of the month. ties, although a steady A single Red Wattlebird · Identify the mystery bird stream of notable birds, turned up at Metroplex · Go birding in Black Soil! mostly brought into the on the 20th (CA), and One of four Red Wattlebirds at region by cooler weather · Common Myna species ac‐ Michael Daley found a Tingalpa Creek Reserve on 26th count arriving from the south group of four birds at May. Photograph by Michael Da- and west, kept twitchers ley. Bird news, continued Tingalpa on 26th. Both records were one-day wonders, rich re- wards for dedicated patch work- ers. A Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, also a less than annual visitor to the city, was seen at Prior’s Pocket on the 19th by several observers participating in a National Parks Association of QLD bird walk (also found independently by Chris Bur- well). These birds also did not lin- ger, to the disappointment of any would-be twitchers. The other major rarity this month was an immaculate Eastern Rosel- Adult Eastern Rosella at Tinchi Tamba Wetlands Reserve on 5 May la found by Campbell Paine at (CPa). Although associating with Pale-headed Rosellas, this bird shows Tinchi Tamba on 5th. It is great to no obvious signs of being the result of a hybridisation with that species. see the extensive photo- Hybrids often have red and yellow colours admixed, and also some blue documentation of this bird, which on the underparts. allows us to confidently rule out a hybrid. banded Plovers over the month, bane. Australasian Shovelers, an uncom- although the average reporting Waterbird rarities for the month mon winter nomad, were at Ked- rate for this species is lower in included Black-necked Storks at ron Brook Wetlands on the 2nd May than in April or June. Per- Prior’s Pocket on the 25th and (DS) and 4th (MG), while Cotton haps there is a passage through Nudgee Cemetery on the 26th, Pygmy-Geese were still present at Moreton Bay in March and April both by Chris Burwell, White- the Brisbane Entertainment Cen- before the bulk of the non- necked Herons away from the tre Lagoons throughout the breeding birds arrive in June. western strongholds at Kedron month. Interestingly, two more More eBirding of key sites around Brook (GT), Lytton (ES, RSt), Ox- birds appear to have arrived, with the city for this species (PoB, Man- ley Creek Common (various ob- several counts of three birds. It ly, Moreton Island) will hopefully servers), and a fantastic record of will be interesting to follow this clarify the picture. a Black Bittern at Fitzgibbon species’ presence on the northside May turned up pretty much the Bushland on the 20th by Ross throughout the winter months. A entire haul of regular night birds, Smith. There are presumably one Freckled Duck was found by Stu- with Owlet-nightjars at Mt Coot- or two pairs of this species on the art Pickering at Minnippi Park- tha, Enoggera Reservoir and Gold northside, as there have been sev- lands on the 19th and was Creek and Mount Glorious, Mar- eral records now from Fitzgibbon twitched by several birders. This bled Frogmouth and Sooty Owl and others from Tinchi Tamba and may be the same bird that was also on Mt Glorious, Masked Owl several creeks leading into More- present at Oxley Creek Common at Pullenvale, Grass Owl at Ked- ton Bay. Be sure to check all suita- for several months up until Febru- ron Brook and Powerful Owl at Mt ble habitat for these birds, alt- ary. Coot-tha. hough as we know from Sandy As would be expected for the win- Buttonquail were around through- Camp Rd Wetlands, where a bird ter months, shorebirds were down out the month too, with Painted has been in residence for years, in numbers and diversity over Buttonquail at Anstead on the 4th they can be incredibly difficult to May, although most core sites (RG) and 19th (BM), and a great pin down and a sighting is a prod- such as Manly and the Port still record by Matteo Grilli of a Red- uct of skill, hours spent in the had decent birds around. Of note backed Buttonquail at Oxley field, and a good dose of luck. was a Sooty Oystercatcher at Creek Common on 6th. This is just Winter is a good time for raptors, Nudgee Beach on the 23rd. There the second record this year of this and this May didn’t disappoint. were no eBird records of Double- rare and erratic species in Bris- Page 2 Birding Brisbane Bird news, continued Square-tailed Kites were at Tinchi Finally, several Tamba (GT), Brisbane Entertain- other notable pas- ment Centre (DA), Kedron Brook serines turned up (JA), Taringa (DB), Mt Coot-tha around the city (PL), Oxley Creek Common (MB) this month, in- and Chapel Hill (CB). Little Eagle cluding White- were rarer, with two reports from bellied Cuck- Kedron Brook (CM, GT) being the ooshrikes at sev- only records for the month. Spot- eral locations, ted Harrier were recorded at sev- including a ro- eral sites, including Oxley Creek busta at Minnippi Common (T&AB) and Prior’s Pock- Parklands on et (CB, M&G), while Grey Gos- 20th (TA), small hawk were recorded from Tinchi groups of Dusky Terence Alexander photographed this cracking White- Tamba (GT), Aspley (JL), Pullen- Woodswallows at bellied Cuckoo-shrike on 20th May at Minnippi Parklands. vale (MR, JT, anon), Anstead (JD, Lake Manchester Records of this species peak in winter, perhaps an influx of KB) and Prior’s Pocket (CB). Fi- (SM) and Ross southern birds. This one appears to be an immature ro- nally, two Black Falcon records Road Parkland busta, with extensive black on breast, and bars on belly. were the raptor highlights for the (AB, PS, SK, CP), month, coming from Fitzgibbon on Plum-headed Finch at Sandy the 18th (GT) and Prior’s Pocket Camp (IS) and Prior’s Pocket (JD, on the 19th (CB). KB, CB, M&G), and White-eared It was a good month for rare par- Monarch at Lake Manchester, rots and cockatoos, with a Glossy Gold Creek and Anstead. All in all Black-Cockatoo at Pullenvale on a solid May, but no major rarities. the 28th (JT), Musk Lorikeets at Round-up by Louis Backstrom, Sandy Camp on the 6th (MD, TA). Richard Fuller and Sandra Gal- The month was also good for rain- lienne. Note that sightings report- forest species, with most of the ed here may or may not be con- specialists recorded throughout firmed, and records of rarities are the period, including Noisy Pitta pending acceptance by relevant at Enoggera and Gold Creek and rarities committees. Red-browed Treecreeper up on the top of Mt Glorious. This Musk Lorikeet was at Sandy Camp Road Wetlands on 6th May (Photo: TA). This begging juvenile Fuscous Honeyeater was photo- graphed at Lake Manchester on 7th May (photo: SM). This is the first occurrence of breeding in Brisbane documented on eBird. Volume 1, Issue 6 Page 3 Two Aussies, a Brit, a Canadian, and an American walk into a Bar-tailed Godwit Each year (and soon to be every down to the coast for sunset and Coolmunda. Once at Coolmunda, six months), the eBird community then pick up any remaining night we quickly realised it would be comes together for a massive bird- birds on the second night. So, with tough going, with drizzle setting in ing effort: a big day, where eBird- litres of coffee stockpiled and which was to accompany us for the ers race around their local area snacks aplenty (for there would be rest of the day (and probably cut trying to find as many species or no casual stops to stock up on 20 species off our tally).