Bird Word: Duetting
- Duetting: a male and a female of the same species singing together, usually in response to each other, and with different song patterns. The Magpie Lark and the Pied Butcherbird are good examples of this song pattern.
The duet song of several Australian species is something one cannot really do justice to in words. One has to experience it to fully appreciate the beauty of such a song. When I first heard a pair of Pied Butcherbirds near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia many years ago I couldn’t believe I was hearing two birds singing a duet. It was magnificent. One field guide I use describes the calls as “superb slow, flute like, mellow notes.”
The Magpie Larks that frequent our garden are not quite in the same league but are beautiful nevertheless.
Magpie Lark
Bird Word: Courting Display
- Courting display: a display by either a male or female bird, or both, used to attract a mate with the aim of breeding.
Different species have different ways of attracting a mate. Some take on very attractive plumage, as in the male of the blue wrens of Australia. Others have elaborate displays with their feathers, such as the Lyrebird. Some build special structures like the Bowerbirds.
Some have a simple display of fanned tail feathers. We often see our resident male Crested Pigeons displaying by fanning out their tail feathers in an attempt to attract the female. Yet other species use song to attract a potential mate.
The courting display is a special behaviour seen from time to time in birds and is usually followed, if successful, by nest building and breeding.
Bird Word: Diurnal
- Diurnal: a bird species that is active by day, the opposite of nocturnal.
Most birds are diurnal. Which is just as well because I like my sleep. That’s probably why I don’t see many owls or nightjars and other nocturnal birds. Most birds are very active during the day and I find them irresistible to watch as they go about their daily activities. Regular readers of this blog will already know that I am constantly on the lookout for interesting bird happenings in our garden. I love sharing these events with all who read this blog.
Another benefit in the fact that most birds are diurnal is that it makes bird photography so much easier. That’s a lazy birder speaking. It could also account for why I do not have many photos of birds taken at night. In fact, the tally stands at zero.
I do have a lovely photo of a nocturnal bird however. A friend showed me where a Spotted Nightjar was roosting, and I managed to get the photo shown below.
Spotted Nightjar
Bird Word: Distribution
No Comments »26th December, 2006; Category: Bird Word
- Distribution: a description of where a bird can normally be found, also called its range. This is sometimes accompanied or replaced by a map with shading or colour indicating where it is found.
The normal distribution of a species as shown in the field guides and bird atlases can be useful in identifying some species. For example, if I see or hear a kookaburra in my garden I know it is a Laughing Kookaburra. The only other possibility is Blue-Winged Kookaburra, but the normal distribution of that species is nowhere near where I live.
Note the word “normal” in the last sentence. One thing I have discovered is that most birds don’t read the field guides. They sometimes do not know where they are supposed to be and can be found well outside their normal range or distribution. This can be caused by many factors but I won’t cover that here; that’s material for another article.
Laughing Kookaburra
Bird Word: Cryptic
- Cryptic: something that is hidden. A bird may have cryptic colours or markings that help it to hide from predators in its preferred habitat. A bird’s behaviour may also be cryptic, meaning it acts in ways to prevent it being seen by other species.
Some birds are incredibly hard to see. Their cryptic markings or colour makes them almost impossible to see in their natural habitat. They don’t do this to make it hard for birders to see them. They do it to hide from predators like hawks and eagles. Musk Lorikeets are mainly green in colour and they blend in beautifully with the foliage of the eucalypt trees in which they feed.
Musk Lorikeet
Other birds use cryptic behaviour to hide from their enemies. Some wrens can be incredibly hard to find; you can hear them in the bushes all around but they won’t show themselves. Sometimes I have been almost driven to dispair at not being able to see a White-Browed Scrub-Wren. Many other small birds are the same and defy you to ever find them as they skulk in the grass tussocks or in the shrubby undergrowth of a forest.
Spotted Nightjar
One species that combines both cryptic markings and behaviour is the Spotted Nightjar, shown in the photo above. Being related to the owl family of birds it is nocturnal. During the day it roosts on the ground, very quiet, very still and perfectly camouflaged in the grass, sticks and sand on which it is sleeping.