Birds of the Kimberley Division, Western Australia
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WESTERN AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM SPECIAL PUBLICATION No.ll Birds of the Kimberley Division, Western Australia by G.M. Slorr Perth 1980 World List Abbreviation: Spec. PubIs West. Aust. Mus. ISBN 0724481389 ISSN 0083 873X Cover: A Comb-crested Jacana drawn by Gaye Roberts. Published by the Western Australian Museum, Francis Street, Perth 6000, Western Australia. Phone 328 4411. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction 7 List of Birds .................................... .. 9 Gazetteer ................................. .. 101 Index 105 5 INTRODUCTION Serventy and Whittell's excellent Birds of Western Australia (first published in 1948) excluded the many species found in Western Australia only in the Kimberley Division. The far north of the State thus remained the last terra incognita in Australia. The present paper fills this gap by providing informa tion on the distribution, ecological status, relative abundance, habitat preferences, movements and breeding season of Kimberley birds. Coverage is much the same as in my List of Northern Territory birds (1967, Spec. PubIs West. Aust. Mus. no. 4), List of Queensland birds (1973, Spec. PubIs West. Aust. Mus. no. 5) and Birds of the Northern Territory (1977, Spec. PubIs West. Aust. Mus. no. 7). An innovation is data on clutch size. The area covered by this paper is the Kimberley Land Division (Le. that part of Western Australia north of lat. 19°30'S) and the seas and islands of the adjacent continental shelf, including specks of land, such as Ashmore Reef, that are administered by the Commonwealth of Australia. Distribution is often given in climatic as well as geographic terms by referring to the subhumid zone (mean annual rainfall 100-150 cm), semiarid zone (50-100 cm) or arid zone (less than 50 cm). Breeding season is defined as the months in which eggs are laid. Clutch size is given thus: C/3 (7), 4 (9), where I have records of seven clutches of three eggs and nine clutches of four eggs. Similarly brood size is given, for example, as B/l (1). Taxonomic references cited in my earlier regional papers are not repeated here. This compilation is based on the literature, the collections in the Western Australian Museum, and the unpublished notes of many naturalists, among whom I am especially grateful to my colleagues in the Western Australian Museum, Messrs R.E. Johnstone, L.A. Smith and John Dell, and to Mrs H.B. Gill and Mr W.H. Butler; collectively their observations embrace all seasons and most parts of the region. Other naturalists who gave me much information include the late Ivan C. Carnaby, Drs D.L. Serventy and A.A. Burbidge, and Messrs J.A. Smith, P.J. Fuller, K.G. Buller, M.J. Brooker and C. Smith. I am also grateful to Mr S.A. Parker for data on Kimberley specimens in the South Australian Museum, to Mr Julian Ford for taxonomic advice, to the British Museum (Natural History) for a photocopy of T.H. Bowyer-Bower's field diary, and to the Australian Biological Resources Study, whose grant financed W.H. Butler's field work in southeast and west Kimberley in June-September 1975 (see West. Aust. Nat. 13: 194-195). The Kimberley, apart from its southern desert fringes, shares with the 'Top End' of the Northern Territory and far northwestern Queensland a distinctive avifauna, which to a large extent was described by John Gould 7 from material collected in the Northern Territory by John Gilbert, J.R. E1sey and the officers of HMS Beagle. Exploration of the Kimberley con tributed little to our knowledge of what could be called the West Torresian avifauna. Indeed, all that was known in Gou1d's time of the birds of the Kimberley were the few observations and small collections made by Philip King in 1820, George Grey in 1836-37 and J. Lort Stokes in 1838. The golden age of Kimberley field ornithology was the quarter-century beginning in 1886. In this short period eight men, T.H. Bowyer-Bower, K. Dah1, G.A. Keartland, J.T. Tunney, P.M. House, J.P. Rogers, G.P. Hill and R. S6derberg, made known all but a few of the birds on the Kimberley list. Apart from F.L. Whit10ck's work around Fitzroy Crossing in 1924-25, little was accomplished between the two wars. On a brief visit to the lower Ord in 1944, C.F.H. Jenkins added two species to the Kimberley list: Cygnus atratus and Microeca [lavigaster. In 1962 D.L. Serventy (Emu 52: 105 116) published the first detailed account of the region's marine birds. From 1958 to 1965 I.C. Carnaby collected eggs in east and south Kimberley; a copy of his data on 752 nests is lodged in the Western Australian Museum. The last decade has been one of intensive field work. It began in 1968 with the Fifth Haro1d Hall Australian Expedition, led by Major B.D.McD. Booth and notable for the rediscovery of Amytornis housei. The Western Australian Museum, alone or in collaboration with the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, collected and observed birds in the Coulomb Point Reserve in June-July 1971, at Lake Argy1e in October 1971 and January February 1972, in the Bonaparte Archipelago in May-June 1972 and June July 1973, on the Mitchell Plateau and at Port Warrender in January February 1973 and October-November 1976, in Dampier Land in June 1974 and April-May 1977, in the Prince Regent River Reserve in August 1974, in east and west Kimberley in June-July 1975 and October-November 1977, in arid southeast Kimberley in June-July 1975, on the Yampi Peninsula in August-September 1975, in the Drysda1e River National Park in August 1975, and in the Edgar Ranges in August 1976; in the course of this work 12 birds were added to the Kimberley list, viz. Botaurus stellaris poecil optilus, Coturnix chinensis lineata, Porzana fluminea, Calidris tenuirostris, Sterna nilotica affinis, Sterna hirundo longipennis, Platycercus z. zonarius, Chrysococcyx lucidus plagosus, Motacilla alba, Gerygone magnirostris, Meliphaga albilineata and Acanthagenys rufogularis. During field work for the American Museum of Natural History in winter 1973 W.H. Butler collected the first Kimberley specimen of Sphecotheres viridis flaviventris; in the same period Mrs H.B. Gill added Phalacrocorax carbo and Aphelocephala nigricincta to the Kimberley list. 8 CASUARIIDAE Dromaius novaehollandiae (Latham) Emu Range. Greater part of Division. Status etc. Locally moderately common (e.g. Mitchell Plateau) but generally scarce. Sparsely to moderately densely wooded habitats, but not sandy deserts. Breeding from May to July; C/ll (1). PODICIPEDIDAE Podiceps novaehollandiae Stephens Black-throated Grebe P. n. novaehollandiae Range. Greater part of Division. Status etc. Moderately common in southern and eastern flatlands, especially about the lower and middle courses of major streams (Fitzroy, Ord, and Sturt); only casual in hilly north Kimberley (north of Munja Lagoon, Lake Gilbert, and Lake Gladstone). Freshwater lagoons, swamps, river pools, and darns. Breeding from December to March; C/6 (1), 7 (1), 8 (1). Taxonomy. For classification of grebes see Simmons (1962, Bull. Br. om. Cl. 82: 109). Podiceps poliocephalus Jardine & Selby Hoary-headed Grebe Status uncertain; perhaps a rare winter visitor to south of Division. Two specimens in Western Australian Museum collected by A.M. Douglas and G.F. Mees in June 1960 at 30 km SSE of Derby. Podiceps cristatus (Linnaeus) Great Crested Grebe P. c. australis Gould Status. Rare visitor to southwestern and northeastern flatlands. Specimen collected by T.H. Bowyer-Bower on the lower Fitzroy 10 km upstream from Lukins Crossing in September 1886. J.P. Rogers collected a specimen in the same region in February 1902 (Hall, 1903, Emu 3: 43; Mathews, Bds Aust. 1: 268). Keartland told North (1898, Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust. 22: 191) that he saw several on the Fitzroy [in summer 1896 97]. R.H. Stranger observed one on the Ord above Bandicoot Bar in August 1975. 9 PROCELLARIIDAE [Puffinus pacificus (Gmelin) Wedge-tailed Shearwater Status uncertain; perhaps a regular winter visitor to open seas. In late July 1965 Pocklington (1967, Emu 67: 134) observed about fifty birds of both phases, including two flocks of 20, north to 1at. 16°50'S, but well to west of continental shelf.] OCEANITIDAE Oceanites oceanicus (Kuhl) Wilson's Storm Petrel Status etc. Common visitor (June-October) to all seas, including partly enclosed waters of Bonaparte and Buccaneer Archipelagos; usually in ones (40 sightings), also in twos (6) and threes (2). [Oceanodroma matsudariae Kuroda Matsudaira's Storm Petrel Status etc. Common visitor to Timor Sea, where Pocklington (1967, Emu 67: 135) observed nearly a hundred in late July 1965, in flocks of up to 30. All observations well to west of continental shelf; here they out numbered Wilson's Storm Petrel by twenty to one.] PHAETHONTIDAE Phaethon rubricauda Boddaert Red-tailed Tropic-bird Status. Rare visitor. Hill (1911, Emu 10: 265) saw two in the Napier Broome Bay region. Serventy (1952, Emu 52: 33) saw one near Seringapatam Reef on two occasions in October 1949. Phaethon lepturus Daudin White-tailed Tropic-bird P. l. tulvus Brandt Status uncertain. In late July 1965 Pocklington (1967, Emu 67: 136) made ten sightings (mainly of single birds, also one party of five) and collected a specimen west of continental shelf (at 200 km NW of Row1ey Shoals and 200 km W of Seringapatam Reef). For evidence that it reaches continental waters see Morgan (1922, S. Aust. Om. 6: 104). 10 PELECANIDAE Pelecanus conspicillatus Temminck Australian Pelican Range. Throughout the Division. Status etc. Nomadic. Moderately common; in ones, twos or flocks of up to fifty. Mainly open freshwaters (river-pools, lagoons, large station dams); also sheltered seas (as far offshore as Adele I.).