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Twitching

Trees in foreground with cockatoos flying in the sky

Coleambally and surrounds is a bird watcher's delight! Each of the streets are named after local birds, with the street signs featuring each bird's picture. You can wander through the town to see the beautiful birds featured on the street signs or you can check out the real thing with the bountiful bird life that is around. We are home to an extensive array of fauna and flora, including the threatened species the Superb Parrot and the Southern Bell Frog. Walking tracks are located in the forest reserves that surround the town. Rice fields provide a valuable feeding habitat for many species of water birds, including bitterns, sandpipers, ibis, herons and egrets.

Surrounding rice fields provide a valuable feeding habitat for many species of water birds, including bitterns, sandpipers, ibis, herons and egrets. Brolga, although rare, are found in and around Coleambally.

Below are more details of some of the birds in our area:

Bluebonnet

(Northeilla haematogaster)

Also called the Crimson-bellied parrot or Bulloak parrot.

Description: Medium sized parrot, brown to olive grey upper body and neck, blue forehead and face. Wing band blue, amount of red belly on its mostly yellow underbody varies between subspecies

Size: Males: 28-35cm, Females: 26-32cm

Voice: Harsh ‘chack chack’ piping whistle.

Feeding: seeds of a wide variety of plants, along with fruit, flowers, nectar, insects and insect larvae. Forage in pairs or small groups. Usually feed on the ground but will also feed in trees and shrubs.

Habitat: semi-arid woodland, on plains with low shrubs such as saltbush or blue bush, sometimes scattered trees or open woodland consisting of trees like Myall, Mulga and native pine.

Location: Found in dryer parts of the inland from Southern QLD through NSW and North West Victoria to south Western Australia.

Eggs: Eggs are laid in a shallow depression on decayed wood at the bottom of the hollow.

Nests: In a hole in a tree. Small trees with small hollow entrances but will nest in taller trees, stumps, fallen trees or even fence posts.

Breeding: August to December. Only a female sits on the eggs, while the male feeds her. The female does most of the feeding of the chicks initially but are feed by both once they grow.

Acknowledgements: www.Birdlife.org.au Field Guide to the Birds of Australia: Simpson and Day, A Naturalists Guide to the Birds of Australia: Dean Ingwersen National Geographic, What Bird is that?: Neville W Cayleys, www.birdsinbackyards.net, https://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Circus-assimilis

Brolga

(Grus rubicunda)

They are also known as Native companion.

The Brolga is a large grey long legged crane. It has a featherless red head and grey crown. Yellow eyes, ear coverts grey and a black dewlap under the chin. Neck, back silver grey, back often has a brown wash. Wings and underparts are grey, legs dark grey-brown to black. Females are shorter than males.

It is a permanent resident in some districts, nomadic in others.

Size: Male: 105-134cm Female: 77-113cm

Voice: Whooping bugle – trumpet like uttered on land and in flight.

Feeding: Insects, small rodents, frogs, reptiles. Herbage and occasionally damages grain crops.

Habitat: Saltmarsh, open grasslands, irrigated croplands, Ephemeral wetlands.

Nests: Mostly on the ground, sometimes rimmed with pieces of grass, reeds or plants. More often, the nest is a substantial platform of grass tussocks, reeds in a swamp.

Location: Across tropical northern Australia, southwards through North-east and east central areas, Central New South Wales to Western Victoria.

Eggs: 2 rarely 3, whitish with a few purplish-red spots.

Breeding Season: September to March.

The energetic dance performed by the Brolga is a spectacular sight, with displays of leaps, bows, high steps and loud trumpeting calls often known as a “corroborees”. This dance is performed by both sexes, as it is their courtship. The dance begins with the birds picking up grass, tossing it into the air and catching it again. Followed by the birds repeatedly leaping into the air with wings outstretched, followed by stretching their neck upwards bowing to one another, bobbing heads prancing around calling out. The dance can be done alone or in a group where the birds line up opposite one another to perform.

Brown Falcon

(Falco berigora)

The Brown falcon is one bird found across the whole of the Australian continent. Also called the Cackling Hawk. A medium sized falcon that glides on raised wings, flight heavy and slow. Hovers unsteadily, usually seen flying over open spaces, commonly perching with an upright posture on wires, posts, fences. Despite being quite board winged for a falcon they are deceptively agile.

Description: Plumage ranging from almost wholly dark sooty brown to birds with reddish0 brown backs and pale undersides, dark marks below and around eye, double “tear drop” mark on cheek. Variable colour thought to be different morphs, but also found it represents differences due to age and sex. Tail rounded, Wings underparts pale, barred, thighs always- dark brown, legs long.

Size: 40-50cm

Voice: Raucous cackles and screeches

Feeding: They are great opportunistic hunters catching a vast array of prey from rabbits, birds, galahs, snakes, insects, mice, small birds – catching them by pouncing on them rather than taking on the wing.

Nests: are a platform made of sticks and twigs, lined with bark fragment, unusually the abandoned nest of some other bird of prey.

Habitat: Found across both open and woodland habitats, usually avoids thick closed forests.Prefer open grassland and agricultural areas. Around outback towns, the birds become quite tame.

Location: All of Australia generally

Eggs: 2-4 eggs, buff, usually covered with reddish-brown blotches

Breeding season: June-November. Both sexes share the incubation of the eggs and both care for the young however the female performs the bulk of these duties while the male supplies the food.

Bush Stone Curlew

(Burhinus grallarius)

Commonly called a Willaroo.

Description: The Bush stone-curlew is one of NSWs most recognisable woodland bird species. It is also known as “Bush thick knee” or “Willaroo”. It has gangly legs, large yellow eyes, grey to brown back, marked with black blotches, buff and white underparts with dark streaks. A black band that runs from its eye down to its neck, a prominent white eyebrow. The bill is small and black.

It is a big bird and look a little like a roadrunner with their long thin legs built for speed. Both sexes are similar.

The nocturnal birds calls at night, their high pitched sound floats easily through the night over long distances.

They are not great flyers and usually resort to camouflage when being threatened pretending to be a small log. Foxes are their main predator.

Size: 54-59 cm tall

Voice: their call is loud, eerie, wailing “weer-loo” or “koo-loo” which is mostly heard in the evenings. Mournful, wailing

Feeding: Feed mostly at night on insects and small vertebrates including snakes, lizards, frogs and mice. All food is taken from the ground.

Habitat: they inhabit open forests and grassy woodlands.

Location: Numbers have vastly declined in south eastern parts of Australia. Found in all states except Tasmania. Quite rare - lucky if you see one.

Eggs: Usually 2. They lay their eggs in a shallow scrape on the ground which makes their nests an easy target to predators. Typical eggs are yellowish-stone or yellowish grey with spots of light brown, dull umber or inky grey.

Breeding: August to January. In pairs when breeding, but forms small parties which may be locally nomadic outside breeding season. Both adults share the incubation and care for the young.

They have a remarkable courtship dance. The Curlew stand with their wings outstretched, their tail upright and their necks stretched slightly forward. The birds will stamp their feet marking time, this is repeated for an hour or more and is accompanied by loud calling.

Common Sandpiper

(Tringa hypoleucos)

Description: It is a small type of sandpiper with a long body and short legs. It is grey brown above with white on its underbody, extending up in a pointed shape between the wing and the dark breast band. There is an indistinct white eyebrow and white-eye ring. Their bill is dark grey with yellow at the base and the legs vary from greyish-olive to a yellowish-brown. Characterised by rapid flight, straight and low on stiff down-curved vibrating wings.

Also called Summer Snipe.

Size: 19cm-21cm. Average weight: 50g

Voice: a ‘tee-tee-tee’ call or a tremendous whistle, a ‘tittering’

Feeding: Hunts by day, eating small molluscs, aquatic and terrestrial insects

Habitat: Found in inland or coastal wetlands, both fresh and saline. Frequents muddy inlets, mangrove swamps, or the margins of stock dams, streams or drainage channels.

Location: Breeds in Europe and Asia, It then visits Australia and New Guinea mainly in the North and West of Australia.

Nests: A depression in grass or the ground, lined with dead grass, moss or leaves

Eggs: 4, creamy buff with spots of grey and brown.

Breeding: June to July in Europe. Female will build nest alone but both sexes share incubation and care of the young. May have more than one brood a year.

Corella

(Cacatua pastinator)

Also called Bare-eyed Cockatoo and Blood stained cockatoo.

Description: Mostly white, with a fleshy blue eye-ring and a pale rose-pink patch between the eye and bill. In flight, a bright Sulphur-yellow wash can be seen on the underwing and under tail. Short erectile crest. Males and females are similar in plumage.

Corellas often indulge in an activity that is uncommon in the bird world because they like to play.

Sometimes they slide down the steep roofs of wheat silos, falling off the edge and then flying back to the top to slide down again.

They often hang upside down or dangle below the perch.

Size: 35-40cm

Voice: Low short 2-note

Feeding: on seeds of grasses and other plants – also on bulbs and roots.

Habitat: Favours open plains, savannahs, and farmland forming large flocks. Roosts in flocks, close to water

Location: Common and widespread across mainland Australia – however absent from the driest areas in WA and SA. Expanding into coastal area in eastern and southern Australia.

Nests: In a hole in a tree, occasionally in a hollow in a large termite mound.

Eggs: Usually 3, white

Breeding: August to October

Crested Bellbird

(Oreoica gutturalis)

Also known as Dick-Dick the devil or a Crested Thrush.

Description: A medium sized bird. A distinctive bird, adult males have grey heads with a raised black crest, white forehead and throat and a prominent black breast.. The rest of the body grey or brown with orange red eyes. Females lack black on face and bib. Females and immature birds are less prominently coloured than males. Singly or in pairs.

Size: 19-23cm

Voice: Distinctive, far carrying. The most outstanding features of the bellbird is its rich musical call. A series of staccato, bell like notes followed by a loud “plop”. Its most amazing aspect is that it is ventriloquial – it can throw its voice meaning it can sound a few metres away to your left then its 50m to your right then its behind you.

Feeding: mainly on grass frequenting caterpillars, invertebrates and some seeds. They usually forage on the ground or in low shrubs.

Habitat: from semi-arid coastlines to the arid Australian interior. Found in acacia scrublands, eucalypt woodlands, spinifex and saltbush plains

Location: Endemic to mainland Australia occurs west of the Great Dividing Range, through SA to the coast of WA.

Nests: Cup shaped, made of strips of bark, twigs, and leaves, often scraps of cloth, lined with dry grass and rootlets. Usually placed in the thick fork of a tree or in a hollow stump from one to three metres from the ground. Well known for habit of lining rim of nest with a number of semi paralysed caterpillars, which the bird injures and stores as a nest defense and maybe food for the young.

Eggs: 3 rarely 4, white spotted and blotched sepia and black.

Breeding: August to December form pairs for the breeding season. Both sexes incubate the eggs.

Curlew Sandpiper

(Calidris ferruginea)

Also known as Pygmy Curlew and Curlew-Stint.

Description: Small to medium sized wader. It has a long, black bill with a down curved end and black legs and feet. During their non-breeding, the plumage is grey brown above, white below with a white wing bar visible in flight. When breeding the plumage is a bright reddish brown below and the wings are barred black.

Size: 18-23cm

Voice: Loud ‘Chirrup’

Feeding: Feeds on insects, and their larvae when breeding. Especially the polychaete worms. Procures its food on sandy or muddy flats during low tides or marshes/wetlands during a high tide.

Habitat: Found on intertidal mudflats of estuaries, lagoons, mangroves as well as beaches, around dams, lakes and floodwaters.

Location: Common summer migrant from northeastern Siberia and Alaska, found in Australia coastally or inland suitable habitats. Sometimes in freshwater wetlands in the Murray-Darling basin – records of this are mainly of birds pausing for a few days during migration.

Nests: An exposed depression in the ground. The female builds the nest, incubates the eggs and raises the young alone.

Eggs: 4 - greenish-grey with rufous-brown markings and underlying spots of purplish-grey

Breeding: June (northern Siberia)

Kestrel Nankeen

(Falco cenchroides)

Description: Smallest falcon in Australia also known as Australian kestrel, Windhover, or Sparrowhawk. Distinctive plumage, back and wing coverts chestnut flecked with black, underside whitish pale buff. The undertail is finely barred with black with a broader black band towards the tip. Bill dark grey, Dark teardrop mark under eye. Females tend to be more heavily marked with a chestnust head and tail with black subterminal band. Males have a grey head and tail. Females are larger than males.

Size: 30-35cm

Voice: the call is a peculiar chatter

Feeding: Very skilled at hovering and can appear motionless when searching for prey, using its fan shaped tail as a rudder. Once prey is spotted, the bird drops nearer to the ground until it is close enough to pounce. Their diet is varied, mainly feeds on small mammals, reptiles, small birds and a variety of insects.

Habitat: Singly or in pairs. Widespread usually in open country, such as grasslands, farmland. Avoid dense forests. They have also adapted to urban areas, often nesting in large buildings.

Location: Mainland Australia and Tasmania (not common in Tas) – accidental to New Zealand.

Nests: In a hollow of a tree, caves, crevice in a rock, or even ledges on the outside of buildings.

Eggs: 4-5, dull white or buff, blotched and greckled with reddish-brown

Breeding Season: Mainly August-November

Kingfisher

(Ceyx azureus)

Description: Also known as the blue kingfisher, water kingfisher and creek kingfisher.

It is a small kingfisher-flying swift and low over water. Its flight is swift and it usually keeps close to the surface of the water in streams. It has a combination of royal blue plumage on its upperparts contrasting with orange on its underparts. The neck has a distinctive orange stripe on each side and there is a small orange spot before each eye. Throat is paler than belly, black beak and bright orange legs.

Size: 16-19 cm

Voice: High insect-like trill

Feeding: Perches and scans water before diving headfirst to snatch fish and crustaceans from below the surface. Insects and frogs. They will often bash their prey against the perch before swallowing it headfirst.

Habitat: Found singly or in pairs, frequents fresh or tidal creeks where there are branches or roots overhanging the waterway.

Location: Northern and eastern Australia, in Australia it is found in the Kimberley region WA, across the top end to Queensland and is widespread east of the Great Dividing Range and in Victoria – its range extends inland along some major rivers of the Murray Darling basin.

Nests: A chamber at the end of a tunnel in the bank of a stream. The nesting chamber can be 80-130cm long. Flooding can destroy low-lying burrows.

Eggs: 5 or 6, white, rounded and glossy.

Breeding season: September to January in the Southern regions. They are monogamous pairs that defend their breeding territory. Both parents feed and incubate the chicks.

Laughing Kookaburra

(Dacelo novaeguineae)

Largest Kingfisher – instantly recognised by its voice and plumage. Massive bill, black above, horn below. Dark eye-strip, large pale head, brown spots, crown patch. Back, wings are brown, wings mottled pale blue, often blue rump. Tail barred rufous-brown and black, edged with white, plain white below.

Families of 4-8 birds. Feed mostly on insects, worms and crustaceans however they can also consume small snakes, mammals, frogs and birds. Prey is caught by pouncing from their perch. Large prey is killed by bashing it against the ground or tree branch, small prey is eaten whole.

Confusion of identification only occurs where their habitat overlaps that of the Blue Winged Kookaburra, which lacks the brown eye strip, has a blue tail and blue on its wing and its voice is coarser and ends abruptly.

Size: 40-48 cm

Location: Found throughout eastern Australia, introduced into Tasmania, the extreme south-west of Western Australia and New Zealand.

Habitat: Open forest, woodlands, will inhabit most areas where there are suitable trees.

Voice: Raucous ‘koo-koo-ka-ka-kook chorus

Breeding: Laughing Kookaburras are believed to pair for life. Nests are a bare chamber in a naturally occurring tree hollow or a burrow excavated in an arboreal (tree dwelling termite mound).

Both sexes share incubation duties and care for the young. Every bird in the group shares parenting duties.

Acknowledgement: Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Authors: Simpson & Day, www.birdlife.org.au

Pied Currawong

(Strepera graculina)

Description: Currawongs are three species of medium sized passerine birds belonging to the genus Strepera in the family Artamidae native to Australia

The Pied Currawong is a large, mostly black bird, with a bright yellow eye. Small patches of white are confined to the under tail, the tips and bases of the tail feathers and a small patch towards the tip of each wing (visible in flight). The bill is large and robust with a black underbody. The legs are dark grey-black. Both sexes are similar, although the female may sometimes be greyer on the underparts.

Pied Currawongs have some positive qualities, as they will eat carrion, pest/rodents, and insects. They are much friendlier than magpies and WILL NOT swoop you during breeding season.

Size: 41-51cm

Voice: Noisy, distinctive, double-call “curra-wong”. The main call is a loud “currawong”, which gives the bird its name. Other frequent sounds include deep croaks and a wolf whistle.

Location: Eastern Australia, from around Cooktown south to the Grampians, Vic.

Feeding: Feed on a variety of foods including small lizards, insects, caterpillars, berries

Habitat: Open forest, woodland, scrubland, farms, urban, well adapted to suburban areas.

Eggs: 2 to 5 usually three, in most instances pale brown streaked with darker shades.

Breeding Season: September to January

Rainbow Lorikeet

(Trichoglossus haematodus)

Description: Sociable, noisy, unmistakable, acrobatic. Head purplish-blue, which is separated from bright green upperparts by a narrow yellow-green collar, underparts are various degrees of orange breast and blue belly, sexes are similar. Strong flyer usually found in pairs.

Also known as the Blue Mountain parrot and bluey.

Gathers in flocks to roost, from which point flocks may travel vast distances seeking blossom-laden trees.

Size: 30 cm

Voice: Strong “screet, screet” noisy chattering.

Feeding: Mostly forages on flowers of shrubs and trees, particularly eucalypts. Highly aggressive species that has thrived on improved urban habitats with high yielding native trees.

Location: East coast of Australia into the tropics, inland NSW and Victoria, North-eastern Tasmania. 2 subspecies one Northern Australia the other East coast to Eyre Peninsula.

Habitat: Woodland, heath, garden, urban parks. Uses a wide variety of tree habitats, including rainforests and woodlands and is a common site in urban areas.

Nests: The eggs of the Rainbow Lorikeet are laid in chewed, decayed wood, usually in a hollow limb of a eucalypt tree. Both sexes prepare the nest cavity and feed the young, but only the female incubates the eggs.

Eggs: 2, White

Breeding Season: Usually September to January

Red Capped Robin

(Petroica goodenovii)

Description: The male is black above and white below with a distinctive scarlet-red cap, white shoulders and a red breast that contrasts strongly with a black throat. The black wing is barred white and the tail is black and white edges. Females are very different in appearance, grey brown above and off white below with a reddish cap, brown black wings barred buff to white and some have faint red on the breast. Young birds are similar to females but are streaked white above, have an pale buff wing bar and their breast and sides are streaked or mottled dark brown.

Size: 12cm

Voice: falling insect like ‘di-di-dididit drr’

Feeding: Feeds on insects and other invertebrates. Forages on the ground or low vegetation. Often perches on a stump or fallen branch, then rushing down to take insects from the ground. Can be seen in mixed feeding flocks with Willie Wagtails, Rufous Whistlers, black faced Wood swallows.

Habitat: Tall trees or shrubs, such as eucalypts, acacia or cypress pine woodlands. Mainly found in the arid and semi-arid zones, south of the tropics. Seen on farms with scattered trees, as well as vineyards and orchards. Only occasionally found in gardens.

Location: Interior of Australia generally, rarely seen on the south coast or far south west coast. An isolated population occurs on Rottnest Island. They will visit areas along the east coast in times of drought.

Nests: Small cup-shaped, made of fine shreds of bark and dry grass, liberally bound with cobweb and lined with hair or fur, built in a fork usually within a metre or two of the ground.

Eggs: 2 or 3, bluish white, minutely dotted with shades of brown and underlying spots of violet grey.

Breeding: September to December – breed in pairs with a breeding territory defended by the male. Males sing from their perches around the boundary of their territory to deter other robins. The males feeds the female during the nest building and incubation. The female incubates the eggs alone and both sexes feed the young.

Spotted Harrier

(Circus assimilis)

Also known as the Spotted Swamphawk, Allied Harrier and Jardine’s Harrier.

Description: A large, slim bodied raptor (bird of prey) with a striking white-spotted chestnut breast and mainly blue grey upper. Typical harriers have an owl like chestnut coloured face, and long yellow legs. A long tail with a wedge shaped tip. Its long broad wings have dark, well rounded “fingered tips”.

It glides slowly with up swept wings, periodically hovering.

Size: 50-62cm – Female is larger than the male.

Voice: Piercing squeaks, rapid chatter

Feeding: Hunts during the day. Prey is procured on the wing and on the ground, consisting of birds (quails, song larks, pipits), reptiles and small mammals.

Habitat: Generally bird of arid, semi-arid regions – open plains, swamps, crops and windbreaks. They have been seen in the mallee, spinifex and saltbush areas.

Location: Across all of Australia – widespread but vastly distributed. Vagrant to Tasmania.

Nests: Loosely constructed, composed of sticks, and lined with leaves usually well concealed in a bushy tree.

Eggs: 2 to 4 usually 3. Bluish-white, without gloss, the inside of shell is green

Breeding: Variable, mainly August to October – The female incubates the eggs, broods and guards the young. The male hunts and brings food to the female

Wander the street signs of Coleambally and learn about our local birds.