August

2021

Chirping and Chattering:

all about

Chirping and Chattering: all about Birds

Chirping and Chattering: all about birds is the monthly Newsletter of the Avicultural Society of Australia Geelong Branch

Website: www.birdclub.org.au Email: [email protected]

Editor: Krystal Skinner

2021 Committee Members and their contact information:

Executive Positions: Ian Grant - President 0413 209 315 Kerri Wright - Vice President 0419 517 959 Carol Hakim - Junior Vice President 0400 130 120 Krystal Skinner - Secretary / Treasurer 0411 036 664 General: Paul Budd 0418 516 099 Frank Mazza 0413 857 363 Orlando Rebesco 0419 034 421 Glenn McCarthy 0417 129 703 Alwin Gallina 0414 958 674

Geelong Aviculture Advertiser is produced monthly for financial members. For article contributions and advertising, contact the The Editor, Krystal Skinner on 0411 036 664 [email protected]

All postal correspondence to: Geelong Avicultural Society of Australia P.O Box 865, Geelong 3220, Victoria Meetings are held on the 3rd Monday of each month at 7:30pm at the Belmont Park Pavilion, 162 Barrabool Rd, Belmont, Victoria. Guests and visitors are welcome. Chirping and Chattering: all about Birds

The next meeting for the Geelong ASA is CANCELLED

The next meeting unfortunately has to be cancelled. Due to the uncertainty around COVID restrictions and numbers with gatherings, we will not be able to hold a meeting.

I am hopeful that things ease back to normality by September so we can enjoy a catch up and a wonderful guest speaker at the club.

All this lock down means Steven and I have settled into the new house and his been busy finishing off the last aviary for now! Hoping over the summer we can organise a BBQ and gathering at the new property and everyone can come and have a browse.

Please be aware that with all the snap lockdowns there have been changes to some sales. Below is an updated list that is accurate to my knowledge.

Victorian Bird Sales Ballarat Branch ASA - CANECELLED Bendigo Branch ASA - CANCELLED Gippsland Branch ASA – CANCELLED Great Southern Bird Expo- Sunday 29th August Western District Branch ASA - Saturday 19th September Chirping and Chattering: all about Birds

The scarlet is a raspberry-coloured dream It is genuinely shocking how nature is able to produce such vibrant colours. The scarlet finch is a total heartbreaker with all that velvety red plumage.

By Bec Crew • May 17, 2021 •

Image credit: manjeet & yograj jadeja / Alamy Stock Photo

The most brilliantly coloured member of the rose finch , this plucky little songbird has a range that runs across the to Northeast and over to Southeast Asia as far south as .

Its scientific name, Carpodacus sipahi, references the red uniform worn by members of the East India Company. British naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson gave the species the name sipahi, a version of sepoy, the name given to Indian infantrymen in the 18th century.

While the scarlet finch male is certainly impressive, the female has another look entirely. Dressed in dappled olive green, grey and white, the female scarlet finch looks very muted compared to the male, but has an elegant kind of beauty, all the same:

(Image credit: Hiyashi Haka/Flickr) Chirping and Chattering: all about Birds

The rose are an absolutely beautiful group of birds that occur throughout Eurasia. While their name Carpodacus is derived from the Ancient Greek words karpos, meaning “fruit” and dakno, meaning “to bite”, they look less like a living strawberry like this wonderful bird does, and more like they were born from literal rose petals.

Look at the dusky rose hue worn by the common rose finch (Carpodacus erythrinus). He looks like he just rolled around in someone‟s winter blush palette:

(Image credit: Dethan Punalur/Getty Images)

And there‟s the Pallas‟s rose finch (Carpodacus roseus), photographed here in Japan, looking like a sweet little lump of Turkish delight:

(Image credit: Nobuo Matsumura/Alamy Stock Photo)

Rose finches belong to the subfamily , which also includes the incredible Hawaiian honeycreepers. They are members of the family of „true finches‟ family (Fringillidae), which, strangely enough, have made their way all over the world, except for Australia and Antarctica. Chirping and Chattering: all about Birds

In Australia, our finches, from the family Estrildidae, aren‟t all that closely related to the true finches, despite looking very similar.

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The looks like a kookaburra got attacked with a paintbrush Meet the incredible banded broadbill.

By Bec Crew • July 29, 2019 •

Image credit: kajornyot wildlife photography/Getty Images

REMEMBER WHEN YOU were a kid, and your painstakingly realistic entry in the colouring competition was always trounced by that one picture that looked like it had literally every shade of Derwent pencil thrown at it? Plus glitter. My god, the glitter.

That‟s what the banded broadbill ( javanicus) looks like.

Chirping and Chattering: all about Birds

An ill-informed rendition of a kookaburra made by someone who will not be told that a bird can‟t be purple and black with random yellow splotches and an outrageously turquoise beak. And why not bright blue eyes while we‟re at it?

Endemic to the island of Java in , the banded broadbill is a rare tropical bird that lives in moist lowland rainforests, using its broad, sturdy beak to snatch up insects mid-flight.

Moving in flocks of 20 or so, these birds construct large, complex nests that hang from suspended vines, draped in lichen and spider webs to obscure them from view. Both the males and females take nest-building and egg incubation very seriously.

Members of the broadbill family (), which boasts some of the most incredible colour combinations in the world, the banded broadbill is related to pitta birds (family: Pittidae), found in Asia, Australasia and Africa.

If you look at the rainbow pitta (Pitta iris) from northern Australia and the noisy pitta (Pitta versicolor) from eastern Australia, you can see a similar „colour-blocking‟ effect in the plumage, but pittas have a more delicate build overall.

One of the most amazing things about these birds – which bring a flood of colour to the forests of our closest neighbours, but never quite made it to our shores – is the mind-bending diversity across the species.

There‟s the brilliant green broadbill (Calyptomena viridis) from the forests of Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula – a tiny jewel-coloured creature with a head that gives it a slightly off-kilter vibe:

(Image credit: K S Kong/Getty Images) Chirping and Chattering: all about Birds

With feathers extending almost entirely over its beak, its head bears an almost half-moon shape. Its genus, Calyptomena, comes from two Greek words: kaluptos meaning “covered” and mēnē, meaning “moon”.

Then there‟s the black-and-yellow broadbill (Eurylaimus ochromalus), which legit looks like a Disney character:

(Image credit: Rapeepong Puttakumwong/Getty Images)

Spread throughout Southeast Asia, but threatened by habitat loss, the black-and-yellow broadbill again looks like someone took an aggressively creative approach to a kookaburra colouring book.

And check these guys out:

Super Prin/Shutterstock

Those are black-and-red broadbills (Cymbirhynchus macrorhynchos), also from Southeast Asia.

This is just a taste of the array of colours and colour patterns that adorn the broadbills. They‟re so unique, many of them are the only members of their genus – something that only happens when scientists can‟t find enough common features to group them together. Chirping and Chattering: all about Birds

Exchange List All notices need to be given to Krystal Skinner

Email: [email protected]

All Notices must include your name, phone number, and ASA membership number, and license number (for licensed birds).

Krystal ph 0411 036 664 Member #3517

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Chirping and Chattering: all about Birds

Disclaimer for Geelong Aviculture Advertiser: All articles herein are published in good faith and are not necessarily the opinions of the committee of The Society. The ASA Geelong Branch, its newsletter and editor assume no responsibility for claims of advertisers in the magazine or the quality of goods and services the advertisers provide. The ASA Geelong Branch reserves all rights in the Newsletter. No information or matters therein may be reprinted without the permission of The Society or ASA Geelong Branch Chirping and Chattering: all about Birds