Wild Bird Wednesday 681 - Musk Duck

The Musk Duck (Biziura lobata) is a powerfully built duck found only in Australia. The male is Australia's largest duck. Adult males are 60 to 70 cm long and have a distinctive large, leathery lobe underneath the bill; females are 47 to 55 cm long and lack the lobe beneath the bill.

This species is a member of the 'still tail' group of ducks - and in some of the pictures you can see the fan like tail either sticking up, or being folded back over the top of the bird.

In 'Wildfowl' by Madge and Burn, (which is a bit of a classic!) this species is described as 'a large and bizarre Australian duck, one of the oddest of wildfowl' and its picture is shown on a plate labeled as 'Aberrant Ducks'!  

Although these images are in black and white, there was almost no colour in the original pictures.  A basically black duck under a heavy grey sky does not lend itself to lots of colour.

As both of these birds have a lobe beneath the bill, I assume that they are males.  So this behaviour could either be just territorial or it could be some form of display to impress the females.  My library is rather lack in detail on the behaviour of this species.  There was a lot of leg slapping, tail contourtions and splashing going on.

 

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Wild Bird Wednesday 680 - Little Pied Cormorant

The Little Pied Cormorant (Microcarbo melanoleucos) is a common is a common species found around the coastal and inland waters of Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Timor-Leste and Indonesia. Its range also extends in to the islands of the south-western Pacific and the Subantarctic.  In my part of the world - South East Australia - is pretty much the default black and white cormorant.

The Little Pied Cormorant is a small cormorant measuring 56–58 cm, with a short 3 cm bill; it has a small black head crest.  I actually think that 'has a kind of punk rock hair do' would actually be a useful addition to the descriptions in field guide - but maybe that's just me!

Almost inevitably, these pictures were taken at Werribee Sewage Works.

Three of these pictures show the bird in its classic wing drying / heat regulation pose. 

This post may be a little shorter than normal as I am just about recovering from an epic week in the Tasmanian mountains - you can see pictures from that trip (but no bird pictures) here.

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Overland Track

The Overland Track is a 65km walk that travels through and past some of the highest mountains in Tasmanian.  As part of a 12 person group, I walked the OLT last week over 6 days.

The weather was a bit damp to start with, but we finished with three days of wonderful clear, cold weather.  In fact we were incredibly lucky with the weather given that the next land mass south of us was Antarctica!

Days ranged from 17 to 8 km, and side trips added a bit of distance and often a reasonable bit of elevation.

SM

Wild Bird Wednesday 679 - Great White Egret

The Great White Egret (Ardea alba) is found over most of the globe - and this individual is in Australia, at the Western Treatment Plant, aka Werribee.

Given such a wide spread distribution it is not surprising that some of the more isolated populations of this bird are considered subspecies, or even full species in their own right.  Historically, this was the case with Australian birds - but as far as I can tell a consensus is forming that Australian birds are 'at best' a subspecies.  I may be the only one here who finds this kind of taxonomy interesting!

In Australia this species is described as being the 'largest, lankiest longest necked egret', and its neck often has an obvious kink.  In SE Australia, it's not really a difficult bird to separate from other white egrets,

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Wild Bird Wednesday 678 - Robin

The European Robin (Erithacus rubecula) must be one of the most familiar birds in the UK. Known simply as the Robin or the slightly archaic feeling 'Robin Redbreast' it was probably one of the first birds I learned to identify.  It's part of the group of 'garden birds' that can be found almost everywhere, and are commonly attracted to gardens, birds feeders and parks.

The Robin is far more confiding in the UK than on mainland Europe - and you have to wonder which came first: has its confiding nature brought it closer to the domestic world, or has its long term association slowly changed its character?   What ever the reason, Robins are classically the companion of garden diggers at any time of the year.

This bird was letting all the other Robins in the area know that it was ready to breed, and that they were in position of a good territory.  If you look closely, you can see that there is an insect food item just a few inches from the bird.   

This bird was staking its claim to a patch of willow scrub at the Ham Walls RSPB nature reserve in Somerset, UK.

If ever there was a bird that could quantify why I don't need to see rarities to have a good day, it may be this one.  So utterly familiar, and yet rather wonderful.

Well, this is WBW #678 which is a good number in itself, but also means I have been posting a bird picture on a Wednesday, and hoping that others will link up, for almost exactly 13 years.  Our community is much smaller than it once was, people have come and gone over those 13 years - but there are some who have been here for the whole journey.  I can't thank everyone enough for the links, comments and contacts.  

There may come a day when I stop doing WBW, but it is not this day!

SM

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter