Occasional bird visitors to our home garden
Yesterday I wrote about the seasonal bird visitors to our home garden here in Murray Bridge, South Australia. Over the 22 years we have been living here, I have recorded 113 different species. Of these 36 could be regarded as resident, meaning that they are always present or are very regular visitors or frequently fly overhead.
Occasional Visitors
More than half the species, however, could only be regarded as occasional visitors. Still others are vagrants, that is, they have only been recorded once or twice. Those that are occasional visitors include:
- Whistling Kite
- Spotted Harrier
- Brown Goshawk
- Little Eagle
- Australian Hobby
- Masked Lapwing
- Silver Gull
- Common Bronzewing Pigeon
- Peaceful Dove
- Little Corella
- Cockatiel
- Crimson (Adelaide) Rosella
- Rainbow Lorikeet
- Barn Owl
- Southern Boobook Owl
- Australian Owlet-Nightjar
- Tawny Frogmouth
- Laughing Kookaburra
- Sacred Kingfisher
- Tree Martin
- Fairy Martin
- Red-Capped Robin
- Hooded Robin
- Golden Whistler (sometimes resident)
- Rufous Whistler (sometimes resident)
- Chestnut-rumped Thornbill
- Yellow Thornbill
- Mistletoebird
- Varied Sittella
- Silvereye
- Masked Woodswallow
- White-browed Woodswallow
- Dusky Woodswallow
- Australian Raven
- Diamond Firetail
- Zebra Finch
- European Goldfinch
Seasonal bird visitors to our home garden
A few days ago I wrote about my favourite birding spot. That spot happens to be my home garden, because I spend most of my time at home. I am therefore very familiar with its bird life and instantly know if there is different call coming from somewhere near the house.
In that post I talked about those species that are resident in our garden, either present all the time or are frequently seen or that regularly fly overhead. Of the 113 different species I have recorded over some 22 years, 36 could be regarded as resident. The remainder would be either seasonal or occasional visitors. Several species I would regard as vagrant, meaning they have been only observed once or on only a few occasions.
Seasonal Visitors
Seasonal visitors to our area would include the following species:
- Pallid Cuckoo (late winter, spring, summer)
- Horsfield’s Bronze-Cuckoo (spring, summer)
- Rainbow Bee-eater (spring, summer)
- Singing Bushlark (late winter, spring)
- Skylark (late winter, spring, summer)
- Rufous Songlark (spring, summer)
- Grey Fantail (winter, spring)
- Striped Honeyeater (spring, summer)
Some of these species are not regular visitors every year. For example, the Rainbow Bee-eater has been recorded breeding here, and sometimes we see and hear dozens of them but some summers we have not seen or heard a single bird.
Some species, it seems, like to keep us on our toes.
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New Species for my Home List
3 Comments »17th July, 2006; Category: Garden birds, Murray Bridge, Nocturnal birds, Owls Frogmouths and Nightjars
After living in the same home for over 20 years it is a rare event to add a new bird species to my “home list.” So it was a delight a few days ago when I disturbed a Spotted Nightjar in our little patch of mallee scrub. It flew before I had seen it roosting on the ground. This is not surprising because the spot where it was sitting was covered in leaves and twigs from the surrounding trees. The spots on its wings were diagnostic, and it was not a Brown Falcon as was my first reaction. Too small, wrong colour and the spots – it had to be a Spotted Nightjar.
Spotted Nightjar
A few hours later I did a thorough search of the area where it might have landed, but it was not to be seen. With its amazing camouflage I may well have walked within a metre and not seen it. While it is exciting to have such a species in our little patch, I am concerned about its future if it hangs around. Being ground roosting during the day, it is in danger of being stumbled upon by the neighbour’s cat. This pet does regular patrols through our garden – despite some attempts at discouragement on our part.
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Favourite Birding Spots #1 Home
Over the coming weeks I plan to include posting of some of my favourite birding spots. My all time favourite has to be our own garden, because that is where I spend most of my time. For any new readers of this blog, home is a five acre (2 hectare) block of mainly mallee scrub on the outskirts of Murray Bridge. Our home town is a regional centre in rural South Australia and is about 50 minutes drive to the CBD of Adelaide, our state capital city. Adelaide is 2 hours by plane west of Sydney.
Mallee Scrub, Murray Bridge
We have lived here now for over 20 years and love it. The house is surrounded by mallee scrub as shown in the photo above. Over the years we have also planted many hundreds of trees and shrubs, all of them Australian native plants except for the fruit trees in our orchard and a small rose garden. Because we have so many plants near the house we have a very healthy population of resident birds and many occasional visitors too.
Record Keeping
I am a keeper of lists. That’s just my nature. So birding is a wonderful hobby. I have all sorts of lists of birds. When I bought a bird database for my computer in the early 1990s my birding interest took off after being in limbo for a few years. I have kept a monthly list of birds seen in our garden (or flying overhead) since moving here in late 1984. For while I was keeping a weekly list. All of these lists can be easily accessed on my computer.
Mallee Scrub, Murray Bridge
Resident Species
There are many species that I have recorded as resident species, that is, they are always present in the garden or in the scrub. Over the years I have recorded 112 species in total. Of these some 36 I would regard as resident species, that is, they are always present or they frequently fly overhead. Those marked with an asterisk are introduced species.
The resident species include:
- Straw-Necked Ibis
- Black-Shouldered Kite
- Nankeen Kestrel
- Brown Falcon
- Collared Sparrowhawk
- Black Kite
- Rock Dove*
- Spotted Turtledove*
- Crested Pigeon
- Galah
- Mallee Ringneck
- Purple Crowned Lorikeet
- Welcome Swallow
- Black-Faced Cuckoo-Shrike
- Common Blackbird*
- Willie Wagtail
- Grey Shrike-Thrush
- White-Browed Babbler
- Yellow Rumped Thornbill
- Weebill
- Spotted Pardalote
- Striated Pardalote
- Singing Honeyeater
- White Plumed Honeyeater
- Brown Headed Honayeater
- Spiny Cheeked Honeyeater
- New Holland Honeyeater
- Red Wattlebird
- Magpie Lark
- White-Winged Chough
- Grey Butcherbird
- Australian Magpie
- Grey Currawong
- Little Raven
- Common Starling*
- House Sparrow*
There are many more species that are occasional visitors or seasonal visitors. For example, The Rainbow Bee-eater is only present in the spring and summer, and not every year. There is yet another group of birds that I would regard as vagrants; I’ve only recorded them on one or two occasions. A classic example of this is a single Australian Pelican flying high overhead. They are very common along the River Murray some 5km away, but not where we live.
Great Birding Moments #5 Crested Pigeon
Crested Pigeon
Earlier this week while driving to the post office to post some letters, I saw about a dozen Crested Pigeons Ocyphaps lophotes sitting on a powerline. This is a relatively common sight here in my home town of Murray Bridge in South Australia. I have seen loose flocks of 20-30 sitting in rows on power lines or on fences. On several occasions I have counted over 40, with 48 being the highest number in one spot.
Resident Breeding Species
The Crested Pigeon is a resident breeding species in our garden on our five acre block of land on the outskirts of Murray Bridge South Australia. On one occasion a pair nested only five metres from our house, in full view from the sun room where we often eat or sit and read or entertain visitors. The nest is a flimsy platform of small twigs. It is amazing how this poor excuse for a nest holds the eggs, let alone contain several growing chicks. But it is simply palatial compared to another common species around here. The nest of the Common Bronzewing Pigeon has so few twigs that I have been able to stand underneath one and count the eggs!
A bird on the move
The Crested Pigeon historically has been a species of the inland parts of Australia. In recent decades, however, it has spread steadily due in part to the increased availability of water on farms. It is very common in the parks and gardens of Adelaide and is increasingly reported in the metropolitan areas of Melbourne. In southern South Australia it was rarely seen in the south east districts, but I have seen it only a few kilometres from the coast near Mt Gambier.
Crested Pigeon
Habitat
It has been a bird of the rural areas of Australia, inhabiting grasslands, pastures, cropping areas, roadsides and farmyards. More recently it has become common in parks and gardens, golf and race courses, sporting grounds and other urban areas, even in our larger cities.
Common Name
I grew up in the Murray Mallee farming district in South Australia. Throughout this area – and in many other parts of Australia, this species is still called a Topknot, noting its erect crest. This confuses it with the Topknot Pigeon of the rainforests and woodlands of eastern Australia.
I must admit that this is one of my favourite species. It seems such an endearing bird and will allow a close approach to within a few metres if done without sudden movements, especially at the nest (which I try to avoid doing too often). Up close, with the sun on the feathers, one can fully appreciate the stunning beauty of the iridescent colours on the wings.
Crested Pigeon