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Home , Brambling, Common chaffinch, European greenfinch, Finch, Fringilla

VOL.19 (8) DECEMBER 2002 225 AUSTRALIAN WATCHER 2002, 19, 225-229 A Record of the coelebs on Phillip Island (Norfolk Island Group),

ROHAN H. CLARKE1 and BRENT M. STEPHENSO:W 1 Department of Zoology, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3086 2 Ecology Group, Massey University, Private Bag 11-222, Palmerston North,

Summary An adult male Common Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs was observed on 4--5 May 2001 during a visit to Phillip Island, Norfolk Island group. The sighting, which has been unanimously accepted by the Australia Rarities Committee, constitutes the first record of this for the Norfolk Island group and the first documented record for Australia.

Introduction Phillip Island (29°02'S, 167°57'E) is situated approximately 6 km south of Norfolk Island in the South Pacific. It is a volcanic island with sheer cliffs and steep topography rising to several peaks (280 m above sea level) on its southern side. Much of the landscape is characterised by severe erosion, with many slopes totally devoid of vegetation (Plate 54). Nevertheless, the largest gully, locally known as Long Valley, supports a stand of small Norfolk Island PinesAraucaria heterophylla, scattered White Oaks Lagunaria patersonia and an extensive thicket of African Olives Olea europaea. In the absence of introduced mammals the island is an important site for breeding seabirds. We visited Phillip Island on 4-5 May 2001 to observe and photograph the breeding seabirds. On both days we observed an adult male Common ChaffinchFrigilla coelebs, perched and in flight, on the upper slopes of the highest peak. Throughout our stay, and during the sightings detailed here, conditions were calm, mild and sunny.

The sightings 1700 h (Norfolk Island Time), 4 May At the head of Long Valley, near a large thicket of African Olives, we located a plump sparrow-sized perched in a White Oak. Views were such that the bird was immediately identified as a Common Chaffinch. It remained perched some 30 m away from us, allowing views of the ventral and lateral surfaces, before it flew down Long Valley and out of sight. Both observers searched in the area where it was last seen without success, before the bird was relocated in the same White Oak as before. It took flight immediately but was relocated on the ground, allowing views of the ventral and lateral surfaces for a further 30 seconds. Whilst we attempted to obtain photographs, the bird was disturbed and it flew out of sight and was not seen again that day.

0700 h, 5 May Whilst birding alone, RHC disturbed a flock of about 20 European Cardue/is chloris and a single Common Chaffinch from amongst AUSTRALIAN 226 CLARKE & S1EPHENSON BIRD WATCHER short tussock grasses just below the highest peak on Phillip Island (about 250 m from the previous sighting). The Chaffinch was seen only in flight.

1630 h, 5 May The Chaffinch was located in the same White Oak in which it had perched on the previous day. It flew between several trees before flying out of sight. Views of the perched bird were brief and largely obscured by foliage. However, several good views of the bird in flight were obtained. In summary, we had sustained views (for 20 and 30 seconds) ofthe perched bird on two occasions and views of the bird in flight on all occasions. Given the close proximity of all sightings and the fact that the Common Chaffinch is previously unrecorded from the Norfolk Island group, we believe that the three sightings were of the same individual. The following composite description is based on these sightings.

Description A plump sparrow-sized bird with a moderate finch-like bill. In shape it differed from a typical Passer domesticus in that it was generally plumper, its legs appeared slightly longer, and it had a moderate to longish tail (which was most apparent in flight). Compared with other species seen on Norfolk and Phillip Islands, the bill was substantially less stout than that of a European , a little less stout than that of a House Sparrow, and a little heavier than that of a carduelis. When the bird perched on twigs, its body carriage was approximately halfway between vertical and horizontal. Direct flight was distinctive: the bird flew with a dipping motion as if it was bouncing on a short rubber band. The dipping flight coupled with the moderate to longish tail (and white outer rectrices), meant that its appearance in flight was somewhat remmiscent of a pipit Anthus sp. Generally the bird flew 2-4 m above the ground or vegetation, but on two occasions it was flying much higher (15+ m) when last seen. Head, upper body and ventral surfaces consisted of a variety of soft pastel hues offset by darker black-brown in the closed wing, contrasting with smaller bold areas of white (shoulder-patch and wing-bar). The soft grey of the crown extended across the nape and down the neck to the upper back. It also extended onto the side of the head to a point just above the eye and continued around the ear-coverts and down the side of the neck to meet the shoulder in front of the closed wing. The remainder of the face, throat and foreneck was a soft salmon­ rust, as was the breast and belly. The salmon-rust of the breast was of a slightly darker hue. The grey of the upper back graded to a pale brown. The lower back, rump and uppertail-coverts, and vent, were not seen well enough at any time to be certain of colouration. A bold white shoulder-patch was prominent on the closed wing, offset by the grey on the sides of the neck above and the dark brown of the upperwing-coverts below. A whitish wing-bar that extended from just inside the leading-edge of the closed wing across the median coverts was also prominent. The remainder of the coverts and the flight-feathers appeared black-brown. The tail was brown with the exception of the outermost (1 or 2) rectrices, which were largely white. This feature was just visible at rest but prominent in flight. The eyes were dark. The bill was slaty grey, the lower mandible perhaps VOL.19 (8) Common Chaffinch on DECEMBER 2002 Phillip Island (Norfolk Island Group) 227

Habitat on Phillip Island, off Norfolk Island, 5 May 2001: above--eroded lanscape, below-coastline scenery Plate 54 Photos: Rohan H. Clarke AUS1RALIAN 228 CLARKE & S1EPHENSON BIRD WATCHER slightly paler. The legs and feet were grey. In flight, most views were against the sky, so colours were not easily discernible. However, contrasting flashes of white were again prominent on the wings as a shoulder-patch and wing-bar, and in the outermost rectrices. The only birds seen with the Common Chaffinch were European Greenfinches and then only in flight. The Chaffinch appeared to be slightly longer in overall length but with a lighter build than the accompanying Greenfinches. The Chaffinch was not heard to call.

Identification The description here identifies the bird as a Common Chaffinch as no other finch of similar form has such bold white marks on the wings and tail (Cramp & Perrins 1994). Our estimate that the bird was slightly longer than a is consistent with the published total length for both species [Common Chaffinch 14-18 em, European Greenfinch 14.5-16 em (Clement eta/. 1993)]. In contrast, weight ranges support our estimate that the bird we saw had a lighter build than that of the accompanying European Greenfinches [Common Chaffinch 19-26 g, European Greenfinch 26-36 g (Strahan 1996)]. The bird was identified as an adult male in summer as no other finch or sparrow has a combination of soft-grey crown and neck, salmon-rust face and ventral surfaces and bold white marks (Clement et al. 1993). The less distinctive female Common Chaffinch is likely to be confused with just one species, the Fringil/a montifringilla (Clement et al. 1993), which our bird clearly was not. 'Rvo features that were not noted by us but which consistently appear in published photographs and descriptions of the Common Chaffinch are the black frons and the buff edges to the primaries. We assume that these were simply overlooked by us, but neither has any bearing on the specific or subspecific identification of the bird. The combination of soft grey and salmon-rust was consistent with the bird having originated from a population of either subspeciescoe/ebs (northern and Russia) or gengleri (Britain and Ireland). Separating these may be difficult, however, as the differences are subtle and are most evident in worn plumage; Cramp & Perrins (1994) stated 'Differences difficult to ascertain on individual but often quite evident when flock can be seen or compared with immigrants.' In contrast, Clement et al. (1993) stated that males of subspecies gengleri have brick-red underparts, rather than vinaceous-red underparts as in coelebs, although confusingly no photographs or plates viewed of male gengleri could be described as having 'brick-red' underparts. The difficulties in identification of subspecies are compounded by the fact that the bird almost certainly originated in New Zealand. Although several texts on New Zealand birds (e.g. Oliver 1955, Robertson 1985) identify gengleri as the subspecies present there, the population is just as likely to be a population between gengleri and colelebs subspecies. More than 300 Chaffinches were introduced to New Zealand between 1802 and 1877, and later, by acclimatisation societies (Long 1981) and it seems probable that, with such a large founding population, individuals released may have been sourced from both the British Isles and mainland Europe. Our identification of this bird as an adult male Common Chaffinch and discussion on subspecific identification has been accepted by the Birds Australia Rarities Committee (Case number 314, T. Palliser in !itt.). VOL. 19 (8) Common Chaffinch on DECEMBER 2002 Phillip Island (Norfolk Island Group) 229

Origin and previous Australian records Our bird almost certainly originated from New Zealand, where the Chaffinch is a common . Indeed, it was the second most frequently recorded species there in the 1969-79 New Zealand Atlas Survey (OSNZ 1990). There are no other extant populations in our region and the species is extremely rare in captivity in Australia. The flighty nature of the individual that we sighted and the fact that strong (30 knot) southerly winds had persisted for more than 5 days just before our visit to Phillip Island (R. Oarke & B. Stephenson pers. obs.) support the contention that this was a wild bird that had flown from New Zealand. We believe that this is the first record of a Common Chaffinch for the Norfolk Island Group (Schodde et al. 1983; Moore 1985, 1999; Hermes et al. 1986; 0. Evans pers. comm). All previous Australian records have been from Lord Howe Island, New South Wales, where, despite no thorough documentation, there can be little doubt that the species has occurred on a number of occasions (Hutton 1990, Christidis & Boles 1994, Strahan 1996). Indeed, I. Hutton (pers. comm) stated that although the Common Chaffinch has not been known to breed on Lord Howe Island, in every other summer between one and five have been located around the airport, where they stayed from a few days to a few weeks. As none of these records has been properly documented, a recent taxonomic review removed the Common Chaffinch from the Australian list (Schodde & Mason 1999). By documenting this sighting, we have confirmed the species' presence in Australia and the Common Chaffinch should now be recognised as an occasional vagrant to Australian islands territories in the Pacific Ocean.

Acknowledgements We thank Owen and Beryl Evans for facilitating our visit and accommodation. We are grateful to Ian Hutton, who responded to requests for information on the species' occurrence on Lord Howe Island; and Ken Simpson and Julia Hurley for comments on this paper.

References Christidis, L. & Boles, W. (1994), The and Species of and its Tenitories, RAOU Monograph 2, Melbourne. Clement, P., Harris, A. & Davis, J. (1993), and Sparrows: An Identification Guide, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. Cramp, S. & Perrins, C.M. (1994), Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North , The Birds of the Western Palearctic, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Hermes, N., Evans, 0. & Evans, B. (1986), 'Norfolk Island birds: A review 1985', Notomis 33, 141-149. Hutton, I. (1990), Birds of Lord Howe Island, Past and Present, Author, Coffs Harbour, N.S.W. Long, J.L. (1981), Introduced Birds of the World, Reed Publishing, Wellington. Moore, J.L.l19S.~, 'Norfolk Island bird notes, 1968 to 1984', Notomis 32, 311-318. Moore, J.L. 1999 , 'Norfolk Island bird notes, 1977 to 1997', Notomis 46, 354-364. Oliver, W.R. . (1 55), New Zealand Birds, Reed, Wellington. OSNZ (1990), Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand, OSNZ Auckland. Robertson, C.J.R. (1985), Readers Digest Complete Book of New Zealand Birds, Readers Digest, Sydney. Schodde, R., Fullagar, P. & Hermes, N. (1984), A Review of Norfolk Island Birds: Past and Present, Special Publication 8, Australtan National Parks & Wildlife Service, Canberra. Schodde, R. & Mason, 1.1. (1999), The Directory of Australian Birds: , CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne. Strahan, R. (1996) Finches, Bowerbirds and Other Passerines of Australia, National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife, Angus & Robertson, Sydney. Received 26 November 2001 •