Glen Helen to Haasts Bluff Road - Banded Lapwing juvenile and others

The stretch of road between Glen Helen and Haasts luff to the west of Alice Springs has often been a good bird-watching spot for me. I normally see Bourke's Parrots during the day, as well as normally finding Australian Ringnecks and Mulga Parrots. This trip was no different.
An additional find has been Banded Lapwings along a particular area about 1 km in length, and this trip there was a small family group, one of which was a juvenile, slowly sauntering across the road. I don't normally drive very fast through this part anyway, and I was going quite slow, and the juvenile walked up the side of the road and unlije the adults didn't fly off. I wound down the window and took the chance to get some photos much closer than is usually the case. Normally the adults are under a tree off the road a bit, so it was nice to get shots u close.
There were also a lot of other young birds in the same area of different species. The Centre has had a true Spring with lots of rains and lots of new birds.

Banded Lapwing juvenile

Chestnut-rumped Thornbill juvenile

Cockatiel

Red-capped Robin juvenile

Rufous Whistler

Southern Whiteface

Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, and some other local Alice Springs birds photos

Alice Springs experienced a dramatic change in weather on Saturday, it hailed. Very unusual for our area. there was a big build up of clouds and one of the cloud colours was a pinky colour, which I now suspect to have been the hail forming cloud (photo below). One change in the area after the rain was the plethora of birds that have suddenly appeared.

One of these was a beautiful female Red-tailed Black Cockatoo out at Simpsons Gap. There were a lot of other small birds around as well, lots of Thornbills and a first sighting for me this year - a Redthroat. Here are a selection of photos from the weekend.

Red-tailed Black Cockatoo 

Chestnut-rumped Thornbill

Mulga Parrot

Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater

Spotted Dove

White-plumed Honeyeater

Hail Cloud

Thornbills - do you know your Central Australian species?

Central Australian Thornbills

You are out in the scrub. You can sense movement and then you hear a chirp, or a twitter and wonder what it is. Mixed in among the Splendid Fairy-wrens, Western Gerygones and Southern Whiteface, you see another small bird. It is probably a Thornbill but which one?
The above photo is a group of 5 Thornbills that can be seen around Central Australia. They are numbered 1 to 5. Before you keep reading, open the photo and see if you can identify each one. to help you, in no particular order, here are the names of the five:

• Inland Thaornbill
• Slaty-backed Thornbill
• Chestnut-rumped Thornbill
• Yellow-rumped Thornbill 
• Buff-rumped Thornbill

In my next post on this blog, if you are keen to know how well you identified each one, I'll give the answers.

Identifying Thornbills can be difficult. Some of them are easier than others because of their colour, markings and voice, while others are difficult as they look similar to other Thornbills. The Yellow-rumped Thornbills seem to be easiest for me at the moment as they have a very different look and noise, but when you see a bird under the shadows of the foliage of a bush or among the branches above head height with the sun overhead, it can be quite tricky. Eventually though, when you have the time, they do start to be more inquisitive and then once they realise you aren't coming to catch them or hurt them, they can be quite friendly.

Currently the weather is starting to warm up in Central Australia, and as the insects become more active, so too will the Thornbills. An easy access location for these birds is Simpsons Gap, about 15 kms from Alice Springs. I have seen all 5 of the birds in the photo above at this location. Cassia Hill walk and the car park down at the Gap itself seem to have been the most reliable in the past.

If I really haven't got a good photo, I also try really hard to isolate the calls I've heard in my head, and then check on my Pizzey and Knight iPad App of the ones I suspect was the variety. I also use others to help with identification if I'm still unsure and have a good enough photo.

Good luck with the ID above, and enjoy your birding.

Splendid Fairy-wren, Willie Wagtail, Hooded Robin, Yellow-rumped and Chestnut-rumped Thornbill bird photos

the Splendid Fairy-wren male (pictured above) really does have a striking presence in the bush. This particular one took a little while to strike the right pose. Photos sequence below:

Others, although not as colourful still make some striking poses.

Willie Wagtail

Hooded Robin

Yellow-rumped Thornbill

 

 Chestnut-rumped Thornbill

Young birds and little bird photos

Unusually, the middle of Australia is having a normal Spring boom for birds. I haven't noticed this in previous years, and it is nice to experience similar events to the rest of Australia. The juveniles have thrown me quite a bit, and thankfully the parents have been around to give me a clue. The Masked Woodswallow was one that really confused me until the parent flew onto a branch beneath the juvenile.

Masked Woodswallow juvenile

A few moments later a young Budgerigar joined the Woodswallow on the same tree

Budgerigar juvenile

further down the road I came across a bird that I just couldn't finger for an ID. Eventually I decided it was a young Rufous Songlark

There were a few of the smaller birds around, they can be noisy and cheeky. One of them was a Chestnut-rumped Thornbill

Chestnut-rumped Thornbill

Another small bird that is enjoyable to watch is the Australasian or Richard's Pipit

and I couldn't have a small bird post without putting in the Zebra Finch. They have such character and even though I see these a lot, I could watch their playful shananagans all day.

Zebra Finch

Spinifex Pigeon, Chestnut-rumped Thornbill and Variegated Fairy-wren photos

Spinifex Pigeon

Chestnut-rumped Thornbill

Variegated Fairy-wren

The "shit-a-brick" bird and others from Simpsons Gap

Recently my son informed me the indigenous names of a few of the local birds are based on the sounds they make. I think the White-plumed Honeyeaters should be renamed the "shit-a-brick" birds because that's what they say a lot of the time.

I saw the newly named bird at Simpsons Gap, along with a number of other small birds.

Hope you enjoy the photos:

White-plumed Honeyeater

Chestnut-rumped Thornbill

Crested Bellbird

Hooded Robin (female)

Splendid Fairy-wren (just getting breeding plumage)

Zebra Finch

Juveniles

Also saw some larger "pied" birds:

Australian Magpie

Pied Butcherbird

Magpie Lark

Happy Birding!