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June 07 Book.Pmd 78 AUSTRALIAN FIELD ORNITHOLOGY 2007, 24, 78–79 Australian Hobby Falco longipennis on Lord Howe Island K. DAVID BISHOP1 and NORMAN P. HILL2 1Semioptera Pty Ltd, P.O. Box 1234, Armidale, New South Wales 2350 (Email: [email protected]) 2Bay View Apartment 401, 4380 North Main Street, Fall River, Massachusetts 02720, USA Summary. Documentation is presented of the first record of the Australian Hobby Falco longipennis for Lord Howe Island. Lord Howe Island is by far the largest (1455 ha) island within the Lord Howe Island Group, which is located in the Tasman Sea at 31°33′S, 159°05′E. It is 570 km east of Port Macquarie on the New South Wales mainland and 1350 km to the north-west of New Zealand. Lord Howe Island is a dramatically mountainous island dominated by Mount Gower with an altitude of 875 m, and Mount Lidgbird rising to 777 m (McAllan et al. 2004). An annotated list of the birds of the Lord Howe Group (McAllan et al. 2004) does not include the Australian Hobby Falco longipennis. We visited Lord Howe Island from 16–19 October 2006. On 16 October at 1715 h we had just arrived on Lord Howe Island and were seated outside the entrance to the Island’s museum. As we watched a group of White Terns Gygis alba flying by, we observed a small falcon dropping into the top of a small group of tall Norfolk Island Pines Araucaria heterophylla located opposite us on the other side of the road. We immediately walked across the road to a small clearing which permitted us to look up high into the canopy of these trees. With the aid of Leica 10 × 40 binoculars, we quickly located the falcon and from the following details of plumage and structure identified this bird as a juvenile Australian Hobby. The bird under observation was a small, dark, stocky falcon with a distinctive dark, almost black hood extending onto the sides of the face; in addition to the dark hood the face was characterised by broad, pale-blue-grey orbital rings; cere colour could not be determined; the throat, upper breast and sides of the neck were rufous with fine longitudinal streaks; we were unable to discern any pale colouration on the chin or throat; the rufous throat graded onto a slightly darker breast and underparts which were extensively marked with fine bars on the flanks; what could be seen of the wings indicated that they were blackish; the legs were dull yellow. During our subsequent 3 days of bird-watching on the Island, we observed the marginally similar Nankeen Kestrel Falco cenchroides several times and were informed that it nests on the Island (Ian Hutton pers. comm.). This species differs from the Australian Hobby by its lighter, more slender build; considerably paler colouration; and very different plumage and general appearance. The Peregrine Falcon F. peregrinus, which has not been recorded on Lord Howe Island (McAllan et al. 2004), differs from the Hobby in being notably larger, heavier and more robust in appearance, and in many details of plumage including being paler and lacking the Hobby’s conspicuous pale blue-grey orbital rings (though Peregrine Falcons have ventral barring and juveniles have pale-blue orbital rings). The longest distance that a Peregrine Falcon has been recorded to travel in Australia is 450 km (Marchant & Higgins 1993). There appear to be no records of migrant subspecies of the Peregrine Falcon anywhere in Australia (Marchant & Higgins VOL. 24 (2) JUNE 2007BISHOP & HILL: Australian Hobby on Lord Howe Island 79 1993), other than a Siberian Peregrine Falcon, Falco peregrinus calidus reported on Ashmore Reef in the Timor Sea (Dooley 2006). We both have extensive experience of the Australian Hobby and Nankeen Kestrel in addition to all the other raptors of Australia, Indonesia and the South-west Pacific, and had no hesitation in identifying this bird as a juvenile Australian Hobby. Further documentary evidence of the identification of the bird observed was obtained in the form a single digital image held on file by the senior author (KDB). This appears to be the first record of the Australian Hobby on Lord Howe Island (see McAllan et al. 2004; Ian Hutton pers. comm.). Observations reported in Marchant & Higgins (1993) strongly indicate that there is some post-breeding movement of this species out of south-eastern Australia. One banded fledgling left its natal territory in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, and was recovered 29 days later in Brisbane, Queensland, ~1000 km away (Marchant & Higgins 1993). Clearly, there is a precedent for long-distance movements of juveniles of this species, and its occasional occurrence on Lord Howe Island may be expected. References Dooley, S. (2006), ‘Twitchers’ corner’, Wingspan 16(3), 45. Marchant, S. & Higgins, P.J. (Eds) (1993), Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, vol. 2, Oxford University Press, Melbourne. McAllan, I.A.W., Curtis, B.R., Hutton, I. & Cooper, R.M. (2004), ‘The birds of the Lord Howe Island Group: A review of records’, Australian Field Ornithology 21 Supplement. Received 22 November 2006 ! 80 AUSTRALIAN FIELD ORNITHOLOGY 2007, 24, 80–81 A Pacific Black Duck Anas superciliosa Eating Carrion P.-J. GUAY1 and J. GREGURKE2 1Department of Zoology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010 (Email: [email protected]) 2Field Naturalists’ Club of Ballarat, P.O. Box 328W, Ballarat West, Victoria 3350 Summary The Pacific Black Duck Anas superciliosa is a mostly herbivorous Australian dabbling duck. Here we present the first record of this species eating carrion, and we review literature on its diet. Introduction The Pacific Black Duck Anas superciliosa is mostly herbivorous, with plant material, particularly seeds of aquatic plants and waterside vegetation, making up the bulk of its food (Marchant & Higgins 1990). Vegetable material represents 70–96% by volume of gizzard contents (Frith 1959; Frith et al. 1969; Lavery 1971; Goodrick 1979). Animal material is mostly molluscs and insects, with crustaceans occasionally being taken (Marchant & Higgins 1990). Feeding on carrion has never been reported. Observation On 20 December 2003, we observed a juvenile Pacific Black Duck on Lake Wendouree, Ballarat, Victoria (37°33′S, 143°49′E), with a piece of rotting flesh in its beak. Bones were still attached to the flesh, preventing the Duck from swallowing this whole. The Duck held the carrion sideways in its beak and shook its head from side to side in an attempt to dislodge the bones, but dropped the flesh in the water when attracted by a person feeding bread to waterfowl from the shore. We were thus able to collect the meat but, after retaining the bones to facilitate identification, we replaced the carrion in the water, where it was promptly eaten by the juvenile Duck. Subsequent analysis of bone morphology indicated that the carrion was the remains of the right wing of a Rock Dove Columba livia (Walter Boles pers. comm.). Discussion Previous studies on the diet of the Pacific Black Duck have focussed on gizzard contents, and have therefore probably underestimated the importance of animal food, as plant matter is retained longer than soft animal tissues in the gizzard (Swanson & Bartonek 1970; Briggs et al. 1985). A better estimate of diet could be obtained by studying the contents of the crop and oesophagus rather than the gizzard. Dabbling ducks are mostly vegetarian, but ducklings require protein for growth and are thus more carnivorous. As in the Mallard Anas platyrhynchos and American Black Duck A. rubripes, ducklings of the Pacific Black Duck thus rely more on animal food than adults do (Lavery 1971; Street 1977; Reinecke 1979). Interestingly, at about 6 weeks old, juvenile Pacific Black Ducks seem to switch from a herbivorous diet similar to that of the adult to a more carnivorous diet, VOL. 24 (2) JUNE 2007GUAY & GREGURKE: Pacific Black Duck Eats Carrion 81 composed mostly of insects, molluscs, and arachnids, until week 15 (Lavery 1971). Although it is not considered to form a significant portion of the diet, carrion consumption has been described in other waterfowl species: Mute Swans Cygnus olor, Buffleheads Bucephala albeola, Green-winged Teal Anas carolinensis and Mallards have been reported eating dead fish, and the South Georgian Pintail A. georgica georgica is known to feed on carcasses of Antarctic Fur Seals Arctocephalus gazella and penguins (Hulme 1948; Kortright 1967; Hughes & Green 2005). In Australia, Musk Ducks Biziura lobata have been reported eating whale offal (Wood 1960). Use of unusual food sources in juvenile birds has been observed in other waterfowl species, and is usually thought to reflect exploratory behaviour in inexperienced individuals (Jehl 2004). It therefore seems likely that the present observation of a Pacific Black Duck eating carrion is an example of an inexperienced juvenile duck exploring a new food source. Acknowledgement We thank Walter Boles from the Australian Museum for help in identifying the bones recovered from the carrion. References Briggs, S.V., Maher, M.T. & Palmer, R.P. (1985), ‘Bias in food habits of Australian waterfowl’, Australian Wildlife Research 12, 507–514. Frith, H.J. (1959), ‘The ecology of wild ducks in inland New South Wales. III. Food habits’, CSIRO Wildlife Research 4, 131–155. Frith, H.J., Braithwaite, L.W. & McKean, J.L. (1969), ‘Waterfowl in an inland swamp in New South Wales. II. Food’, CSIRO Wildlife Research 14, 17–64. Goodrick, G.N. (1979), ‘Food of the Black Duck and Grey Teal in coastal northern New South Wales’, Australian Wildlife Research 6, 319–324. Hughes, B. & Green, A.J. (2005), ‘Feeding ecology’, pp. 27–56 in Kear, J. (Ed.), Ducks, Geese and Swans, Oxford University Press, New York, USA.
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