Brilliant Bowerbirds

There are some bird families that have a certain mystique and appeal within the birding community. One such family is the Bowerbirds - occurring in Australia and New Guinea. There are twenty species known to science, ten of which occur in Australia; eight of these ten (Green Catbird; Tooth-billed, Golden, Satin, Regent, Western, Spotted and Great) only occur in Australia and the remaining two (Spotted Catbird and Fawn-breasted Bowerbird) are found in both Australia and New Guinea. Five of these are found in Far North Queensland - Spotted Catbird, Satin Bowerbird, Great Bowerbird, and the Tooth-billed and Golden Bowerbird which are endemic to our region.
The bowers the males make as part of their courtship rituals fall in to two main types.
Some build so called "maypole" design structures - a structure of sticks built around a central sapling or tree

the structure is decorated and maintained throughout the season, here is the same bower three weeks later

The male, in this case was a Golden Bowerbird

who uses a song post nearby to advertise his presence with a collection of buzzes and croaks
You can listen to him here:
http://youtu.be/elrAxtu2YKA

Other species of bowerbird construct tunnel structures

this structure has been decorated with green plastic and was made by a Great Bowerbird

There are of course some species that buck this trend of fancy structures. A case in point being this member of the family, the Tooth-billed Bowerbird

their structures consist of nothing more than up turned leaves in a clear area of the forest floor

On a recent trip we saw four of the five species that can be found in North Queensland - only missing Great Bowerbird that occurs in dry country rather than in the forests.
Come and join us and see these astonishing birds.....

Southern Tablelands

We recently had a very successful trip to the Southern Tablelands. Although we weren't specifically targeting the Wet Tropic endemics we still managed to find 11 out of the 12 - missing out on Mountain Thornbill.
Our main focus of this trip was to target a handful of species that are very restricted in far North Queensland - having a far more southern distribution in Australia.
The day was a great success with all our targets found with the exception of the Thornbills. The temperature difference between the coastal lowlands and the higher altitudes of the Tablelands is quite pronounced in the winter and fleeces were essential as there was a real cold bite in the air.
The birds I think found it on the chilly side as well as it took quite some time for them to become active. The honeyeaters in particular were very hard to find at the start of the day - although by the end we had found 13 species with the highlights being Fuscous, Yellow-faced, Bridled and Macleay's Honeyeater, Noisy Miner and Noisy Friarbird.
Everything was concentrated around the trees that were in flower which made for exciting if slightly manic birding at times. When a suitable tree was found it was quite difficult to make sure we were looking at the same things as birds were buzzing all over the place. Some species like Little Lorikeet were less than obliging and offered nothing more than flight views where as others such as Eastern Yellow Robin, Grey and Bower's Shrike-Thrush and  Crested Shrike-Tit were far more helpful and gave much better views, all be it slightly distant at times.
We also called in at a couple of forest sites. At this time of year finding the fruiting trees is essential, on one tree alone we had three species of bowerbird feeding - Golden, Satin and Tooth-billed. One of the joys of rainforests is the soundscape - the cacophony of sound can be quite overwhelming; sometimes though the chorus is dominated by a single species. At one location we stopped of at this was the case with several Eastern Whipbirds calling continuously - often from visible song perches, they truly are one of the sounds of the forests.
Although the trip was not great for photography - there was just too much going on here are a few of our better pictures:

Golden Bowerbird bower

and the male Golden Bowerbird himself

Grey Butcherbird

Crested Shrike-Tit

Wedge-tailed Eagle

Pale Yellow Robin