BIRD TRACKS TABLE 1: Bird Food & Habitat Use by land-based birds in South Australia. Shows where birds look for food, what types of food they find there, how they find and catch it, and the types of birds that tend to use each habitat layer and how they prefer to find their food. Feeding Group Where & how they feed Common Foods Key Features & Species in Group you may see in Schools Birds you see Hunting in the Air – Swooping, Scooping, Sallying & Snatching Look & See Hover up high or perch up Small live animals: Powerful legs, feet, talons, Swoopers high, sight prey and catch it rats, mice, rabbits & for grabbing & holding - Birds of Prey on ground, in air or among other birds. prey. Wings for speed By Day - Eagles, trees. Grab prey in talons, Dead animals or or gliding. Kites, Harriers perch and use hooked beak carrion Nankeen Kestrel, to tear up for eating Black-shouldered Kite, Falcons, Goshawks & Sparrowhawks. Brown Goshawk, Whistling Kite, By night – Owls Wedge-tail Eagle Air Swimming Catch insects in open air by Free flying insects: Long rounded wings for Insect Scoopers scooping them up as fly variety of small speed OR shorter, broader past. Continually in air or moths, flies, bees wings for gliding at speed. By Day - Swallows, making trips out from mosquitoes Martins, Bee-eaters Fairy Martin, perches. etc. Woodswallows. Welcome Swallow, By Night – Nightjars Dusky Woodswallow Frogmouths. Somersaulting Catch insects in open air Free flying insects: Short rounded wings for Insect Snatchers above ground or among variety of small manoeuvrability, long tail can trees & shrubs with ‘sally’ moths, flies, bees be fanned for quick stop or Willy Wagtails, (leap into air off ground or mosquitoes etc balance as turn, whiskers at Fantails, other bird perch, to dive on insect) or Insects on surface: base of beak to guide insects species such as ‘snatch’ insect off surface snatched into mouth. honeyeaters. while in air. off trunk, Willy Wagtail, Grey Fantail, branch, Honeyeaters e.g. White-plumed ground. Engaging with Nature ∼ Bird Tracks: Understanding SA Birds, their Food & Habitat Table 1: Bird Food & Habitat Use Feeding Group Where & how they feed Common Foods Key Features & Species in Group you may see in Schools Birds you see Hunting in Trees & Shrubs – Probing, Gleaning, Picking & Pecking Up & Down Probers Walk up or down trunks & Variety of Strong climbing legs & feet. – Trunk Specialists branches or on dead invertebrates; Treecreepers - Downward Treecreepers, wood. Probe under rough spiders, curved bills, travel up trunks. bark, in cracks and beetles, Sittellas – upward curved Sittellas crevices to catch borers, bills, travel down branches. Varied Sittella, invertebrates hiding on moths, trunks, branches. centipedes etc. White-browed Treecreeper All Around Probers Probe under lose bark, in Variety of Strong legs & feet that can - Tree Generalists cracks and crevices to invertebrates as grasp bark, branches. Strong Currawongs, catch invertebrates and above and small bills to lift bark and probe. Shrike-tits, Whistlers, small animals. animals, e.g., Currawong uses long sharp bill Short-beaked bats, to catch small animals. Honeyeaters, geckos. White-naped Honeyeater, Miners Rufous Whistler, Grey Currawong, Crested Shrike-tit, Ravens Over & Under Glean scale from leaf Tiny Scale or Lerp Specially adapted beaks for Leaf Gleaners surfaces. Expertly lift and bugs and their sugary gleaning scale and able to walk - Lerp Specialists eat scale/lerp house and scale houses. up and down on leaf surfaces catch and eat sap-sucking (Pardalotes) or hang from leaf Pardalotes, Lorrikeet species bug underneath. bunches or branches (Lorikeets). Musk Lorikeet, Striated& Spotted Pardalotes Up & Over Pickers, Glean (lift or catch) insects Caterpillars, spiders, Legs & feet that can grasp leaves, from surface of leaves, small insects including twigs, branches. Small bills that Peckers & Gleaners – Tree & twigs & branches as walk beetles, bugs, flies & can pick, probe & catch insects. Shrub Generalists over foliage and branches. mosquitoes. Striated Pardalote, Thornbills, Brown-headed Honeyeater, Fairy-wrens, Superb Blue Fairy-wren, Honeyeaters, Noisy & Yellow-throated Miners, other Short-beaked Honeyeaters Wattlebirds, Miners Engaging with Nature ∼ Bird Tracks: Understanding SA Birds, their Food & Habitat Table 1: Bird Food & Habitat Use BIRD TRACKS TABLE 1: Bird Food & Habitat Use by land-based birds in South Australia – page 3 Feeding Group Where & how they feed Common Foods Key Features & Species in Group you may see in Schools Birds you see Feeding on flowers of Trees & Shrubs – Nectar Feeders Down the Tube Visit flowers adapted to Nectar of tube-like Legs & feet that can hang on to Nectar Feeders - attract birds, use long bill flowers that birds twigs and branches. Long and brush tongue to harvest pollinate as they curved bill and brush tongue. Specialist Pollinator nectar from tubular flowers, feed. Often Yellow-wing Honeyeater, Long-billed Eremophilas, Correas, orange Eastern Spinebill. Honeyeaters Callistemons etc. or red. Slurping Around Visit flowers that allow birds Nectar of open Legs & feet that can hang on to Flower Feeders - to harvest nectar. May flowers, e.g. twigs and branches. Small Beak Generalists defend large sources of Eucalypts. Parrots and brush tongues or parrot nectar from other birds. sometimes harvest beak with brush tongue. Short-billed Insects also large part of pollen too White-plumed Honeyeater, Honeyeaters diet. & Rosellas White-naped Honeyeater, Wattlebirds, Miners, the whole Red Wattlebird, Rainbow Lorrikeets, Rosellas flower. Lorikeet, Adelaide Rosella. Birds you see Feeding on Fruit, Pods & Seeds of Trees & Shrubs – Crunching & Munching Crunching & Harvest berries from among Berries of Native Legs & feet that can hang on to Munching Fruit foliage of shrubs, trees and Cherry, Myoporum, twigs and branches. Feeders groundcovers. Leucopogon, Variety of beaks. Astroloma, Saltbush Red Wattlebird, Lorrikeets, Rosellas, Other Honeyeaters, Currawongs, Grey Currawong, Silvereyes, Rainbow Lorikeet Honeyeaters, Crunching & From perches in trees and Seeds of Hakeas, Legs & feet that can hang on to Munching Seed shrubs find, husk and eat Acacias, Eucalypts, twigs and branches. Large, seeds OR split open pods Sheoaks, Native Pea powerful beaks, strong gripping Eaters - Specialists with beak or claws and species, Wattles. claws. Finches, Silvereyes, extract and eat seeds. May Red-browed Firetail, Cockatoos, Galahs, have to crunch & tear open Adelaide Rosella, Rosellas, Magpies pods to get them. Yellow–tailed Black Cockatoo Engaging with Nature ∼ Bird Tracks: Understanding SA Birds, their Food & Habitat Table 1: Bird Food & Habitat Use BIRD TRACKS TABLE 1: Bird Food & Habitat Use by land-based birds in South Australia - page 4 Feeding Group Where & how they feed Common Foods Key Features & Species in Group you may see in Schools Birds you see Hunting on the Ground & Around – Scratching and Catching Perched Pouncers Perch above ground and Robins – small Great eyesight, beaks that can - Insect & Animal watch for prey. Swoop insects Kingfishers catch and hold prey. Specialists down and catch and & Kookaburras – Scarlet Robin, Robins, Kingfishers, return to perch. Kill large small lizards, mice Sacred Kingfisher, Kookaburras animals by beating on to Kookaburra perch and then snakes. swallowing. Scratchers & Scratch through leaf litter Insects, Strong feet for scratching, Catchers - or probe in woody debris, invertebrates of all strong bill for catching and Invertebrate probe into crevices on kinds probing. Specialists ground or low branches. plus small White-browed Scrub-wren, Scrub-wrens, skinks, White’s Thrush, Thrushes, Shrike- worms, Grey Shrike-thrush thrushes, Magpies, spiders. Feral Blackbird Currawongs, Ravens, Blackbird Birds you see Feeding on the Ground & Around – Picking & Pecking Along the Ground Walk, hop run across Variety of insects Legs and feet for walking, Pickers & Peckers - ground catching insects found on open hopping or running, beak Insect & Seed on ground or looking for ground, in turf OR for picking or pecking. Eaters small seeds. small seeds found Yellow-rumped Thornbill, Plovers, Murray on the ground. Superb Blue Fairy-wren, Magpie, Thornbills, Spur-winged Plover, Whitefaces, Chats Murray Magpie Fairy-wrens Engaging with Nature ∼ Bird Tracks: Understanding SA Birds, their Food & Habitat Table 1: Bird Food & Habitat Use BIRD TRACKS TABLE 1: Bird Food & Habitat Use by land-based birds in South Australia - page 5 Feeding Group Where & how they feed Common Foods Key Features & Species in Group you may see in Schools Birds you see Feeding on the Ground & Around – Picking & Pecking In the Ground & Walk around on the Skinks, geckos, Strong legs and feet for Around ground poking, probing in beetles, larvae, Hopping, walking, & pouncing Diggers & Probers the earth, among leaf grasshoppers, Strong beak for probing, – Omnivores litter, in dead wood, worms, spiders, tearing and grabbing. bases of plants. Looking mice, small Grey Currawong, for variety of small frogs, grass, Grey Shrike-thrush, Australian Mapgie, animals & insects, worms, wattle Little & Australian Ravens, White-winged Chough, Feral Starling seeds and rotting matter. seeds etc. On the Ground Walk across ground Large variety of Feet for walking, beak for Seed Peckers - searching for and eating seeds. Finches – cracking/husking seeds, digging Specialists seeds. May dig or probe small grass seeds, out of ground, crop (throat pouch Pigeons, Finches,