Wild Bird Wednesday 696 - Whiskered Tern

The Whiskered Tern (Chlidonias hybrida) is a small, tubby tern with a slightly forked tail. In breeding plumage it has a black crown and white cheeks and sides of neck. The upperparts, upperwings and tail are medium grey, the underparts darker grey the undertail is white. Whiskered Terns have brown eyes, although to be honest I only ever see them as black, and the bill and legs are red. 

It's a classic tern in shape, colour and behaviour.

The Whiskered Tern is a summer breeding migrant to South Eastern Australia, although a few birds may hang around all year.  At this time it can be seen in often surprisingly large numbers over wetland and damp grasslands.

One of their more remarkable behaviour is when a flock of the birds make their way up-wind feeding on insects that have settled on the surface of water, or more surprisingly, on tall vegetation.  When this behaviour it carried out by a large number of birds over an open paddock of grass it is a remarkable site.  When this happens it's like watching a whirlwind of birds.

The birds in these pictures are part of small group of terns that were working their way up-wind along a strip of vegetation.  They were feeding on rather large looking midges of some sort.  In fact in some of the pictures the insects can be seen on the wing.  The birds will also pick insects directly off the plants.

This was the first (but certainly not the last) time I have tried to photograph this behaviour.

I'll let you take a wild guess where the photographs were taken.

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Wild Bird Wednesday 695 - White-Browed Scrubwren

The White-Browed Scrubwren (Sericornis frontalis) is the most common and widespread of Australia's five species of Scrubwren. Its range extends from northern Queensland, in a broad coastal band through South Australia to the mid Western Australian coast, and Tasmania.  Of course this incudes Werribee Sewage Plant!

This individual bird is actually reasonably well known due to the distinctive, but atypical,  patch of white feathers on its head.  This patch due to leucism, a condition causing a loss of pigment in feathers that makes them appear white.  This bird is regularly seen in the salt-marsh area around the hide at the mouth of the little river.

White-browed Scrubwrens feed mostly on insects, and I think this bird is carrying a beetle larva of some kind.  

As a species, they are fast moving and very active: these pictures came from a single burst when, finally, this individual sat still and in the open.

As ever, to join in with WBW click on the links below.  Cheers  SM

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Wild Bird Wednesday 694 - Sharp-Tailed Sandpiper

The Sharp-Tailed Sandpiper (Calidris acuminata) is a small to medium sized wader. It breeds mostly in Siberia during the northern summer and the majority of individuals spend their non-breeding season in Australia during the southern summer. It is also found in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and New Zealand, but in lower numbers than in Australia.

The 'Sharpie' can be found more or less all around the Australian coast, with the greatest numbers being found in south-eastern Australia (which is where I am!).

The Sharp-Tailed Sandpiper has a reasonably distinctive chestnut crown and nape, with a white eyebrow, and reddish brown, highly patterned upper parts.  It also has green legs.  Sharp-Tailed Sandpipers, along with Red-Necked Stints and Curlew Sandpipers, make up the vast majority or the small and medium sized waders that visit my part of Australia in summer.  I was once told to initially concentrate on these three species of waders as a way to simplify learning to identify this potentially confusing set of birds.  It was very good advice.

I am not sure what the interactions I captured with these birds means, I assume it was some form of dominance display, but that's a guess.

People will not be surprised to learn that these pictures were taken at the Werribee Sewage works - a place I have visited three times in the last week!

You can certainly see the Sharp-Tailed Sandpipers sharp tail feathers in some of these pictures!

As ever, to join in with WBW click on the link below.  Cheers  SM

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Wild Bird Wednesday 693 - Blue Tit

The Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) is probably one of the UKs most recognisable garden and bird feeder visitors.  Their colourful mix of blue, yellow, white and green plumage makes them easy to identify.  In winter (when bird feeders are at their most popular) they can be commonly seen in flocks, often associating with other similar small birds.

A very long time ago I worked on a nature reserve and we were banding / ringing around the bird feeders.  By the end of the day we had banded close to 100 Blue Tits - along with two Great Spotted Woodpekers, and many other woodland birds.  But what was remarkable was the number of un-banded birds that were still using the feeders.  We estimated that no more than 1/3rd of the Blue Tits that were around the feeders, meaning that the total population utilising the feeders was bout 300 birds!  Remarkable.

It estimated that there are over 4 million pairs of these birds in the British Isles, with Blue Tits being most abundant in woodlands that contain oak trees.

The Blue Tit belongs to a family of birds called the Paridae. Eurasian and African members of this family are referred to as "tits", while North American species are generally called "chickadees".  

They are without question a delightful and popular little bird.

As you can see, some of these birds have been banded (although not by me!).  These birds were feeding on the nut feeders outside of the main office of the RSPB reserve at Minsmere, in Suffolk.  As these pictures were taken on late in the afternoon in mid-February I suspect the birds were feeding up for a long, dark and cold night.

As ever, to join in with WBW click on the link below.  Cheers SM.

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