Mallee Fowl losing its fight
In this week’s local paper, The Murray Valley Standard, there was a disturbing article about the imminent demise of the endangered Mallee fowl, once a relatively common bird in our district. In over 25 years of intensive birding in the district I have only ever seen two birds, both together. While I’ve found about five nesting mounds, only two of them are still actively worked by the birds.
Local experts are predicting the complete local extinction of the species in my area within 5 years, a sad thing to contemplate. You can read the whole article, which includes photos, by clicking here. One of the most recently active nests at Ferries McDonald Conservation Park, is shown in the photo below. This park is a half hour drive from my home. While the bird is reasonably secure in some other parts of Australia, local extinction is a worrying trend and is being mirrored elsewhere, hence the endangered status of this amazing bird.
Related articles:
Over the years I have written several extensive articles about this bird:
- Mallee Fowl – the incubator bird
- Malleefowl painting – Pinnaroo Primary School
- Malleefowl mound at Tintinara
Malleefowl, Innes National Park Visitor Centre
Malleefowl nest, Ferries McDonald Conservation Park, South Australia
Birding with the scouts
Galah, Swanport Wetlands, Murray Bridge
Two weeks ago I spent an enjoyable day speaking about local birds. About 130 Scouts from all over the state were camping locally, and on the Saturday they were allocated into groups of 7 – 10 for a variety of activities at the Swanport Wetlands on the eastern side of the River Murray near Murray Bridge. These included bird watching, making nesting boxes, taking water samples and so on.
I was the leader for the birding groups. Each birding activity took about 20 minutes, so there was a quick turnover of groups. Most of the children attending showed a pleasing interest in the bird life of the area and saw the relevance of making nesting boxes for the parrots and other species present. Nesting hollows are in short supply in the area, so that activity was also well appreciated. The simplicity of the nesting box construction has inspired me to make some for our own patch of scrubland.
While the day was a success, and the activities interesting and relevant, the weather was not. The previous day we’d had gale force winds and pelting rain. On the day of the activities the weather started out fine but deteriorated quickly as we got under way. Persistent drizzle can be annoying but the groups soldiered on; it seemed that the rain and cool conditions were taken in their stride as all part of the adventure.
Because of the conditions and several other factors, the birding on the day was not brilliant, and I was not able to get many photos. Overall I would regard it as a successful day, but I was very pleased to spend the evening in front of a warming fire.
Swanport Wetlands, Murray Bridge
Galah, Swanport Wetlands, Murray Bridge
A puzzling parrot
Colour variations in Australian Ringnecks (ssp Mallee Ringneck)
We have a small flock of about 6 Mallee Ringnecks resident in our garden. We see them every day and they have breed successfully nearby. The Mallee Ringneck is a race of the Australian Ringneck and is found in areas which contain predominantly mallee tree habitat. Our 5 acre block is half covered in mallee trees, so they probably feel quite at home.
In recent weeks I’ve been aware that one of them has some interesting colour variations. In the photo above, the bird on the left has a much darker head than normal, plus more yellow on the chest and blue cheek feathers rather than green. Throughout the broad range of the Australian Ringneck there is considerable colour variation.
The Western Ringneck (also called the Port Lincoln Parrot) has a particularly dark head – it’s black in fact. Port Lincoln Parrots have been recorded in the Adelaide metropolitan region, but it is suspected that they were aviary escapes or releases. I’m not claiming that this bird is of the race, Port Lincoln Parrot, but I suspect it may have escaped from someone’s cage as they are a common aviary bird. Another possibility is that it is the progeny of cross breeding between a Mallee and a Port Lincoln Parrot, thus accounting for the washed out grey head rather than a black one. Both races interbreed readily in the Flinders Ranges where their ranges overlap.
The photo below shows a close up view of the same bird. The third photo shows the normal colours of the Mallee Ringneck.
I’d be very interested in reader’s comments.
Australian Ringneck, Murray Bridge
Mallee Ringneck Parrot
Adelaide Rosellas in a flying visit
Adelaide Rosella
The Adelaide Rosella is a race of the widespread Crimson Rosella. It is confined to the Adelaide region, the Mt Lofty Ranges and through to the mid north of South Australia. It is relatively common in that range and shows considerable colour variations, ranging from a washed out orange through to almost red.
I live in Murray Bridge which is about 80km SE of the Adelaide CBD and about 40km from the ranges. When we first moved here 30 years ago I had to travel 30 – 40km west to see this species. Over the years the range appears to have drifted further east and sightings in and around Murray Bridge are becoming far more common. I can’t claim this as a resident species in our garden, but sightings are becoming quite regular every few months so it might happen in the future.
On the weekend just gone we had two land in the Eremophila youngii bush in our front garden. This bush has been in flower for some time and the local honeyeaters love feeding on the nectar. The resident Mallee Ringnecks also feed on the flowers. These visiting rosellas came early in the morning and sat there briefly in full sunlight. I was just emerging from showering and shaving, and my camera was at the other end of the house. Naturally they flew off before I could take a photo.
One day.
One day they’ll pose nicely for me and I’ll be able to improve on the photo above. Meanwhile, I’ve included a close up photo of the flower (see below) as well as one showing a New Holland Honeyeater in the bush.
Eremophila youngii in our garden
New Holland Honeyeater feeding in Eremophila youngii
Red-rumped parrots and the morning paper
3 Comments »21st July, 2011; Category: Bush birds, Garden birds, Murray Bridge, Parrots and Lorikeets
Red-rumped parrot (male)
This morning I walked down our long driveway to collect the newspaper. I heard a twittering in the tree above me and I was delighted to see two Red-rumped Parrots. A male and female with the male perched in the early morning sunshine lighting up the beautiful colours.
This is a common and widespread species in our region, the lower Murray River district of South Australia. Despite being common in our area, we rarely have them visit our garden and five acre block. I find this both strange and disapppointing; strange that I can’t account for them not visiting, and disappointing because they are such beautiful birds.
Of course, I didn’t have my camera with me, and they didn’t hang around long enough for me to race inside, fire up the camera, and chase them down. You get that.
So… I’ve included in this post some photos I prepared earlier. I took these on a recent visit to Riverglades, a wetland over the other side of the Murray River from our home.
They are beautiful birds, especially the colourful male. The female is much duller.
Good birding.
Red-rumped parrot (male)
Red-rumped parrots (male on left, female on right)