Fink Family Farm Bird List

Fink Family Farm Bird List

The only list I faithfully keep is a list of all the birds seen on our farm since we moved here in 1977. I thought it would be fun to add p...

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Birds of Western Australia


These are all video captures from a Zooniverse project I'm helping with: Numbat Discovery. I find very few of the rare Numbats, a colorful anteater, in these videos but quite a few birds.

With luck, some more exotic Western Australia birds will turn up. I will add them as they appear.


Thanks to Fred Ramsay for this identification:

"The bird with the white back - is an  Australian Magpie (Cracticus tibicen).
This dorsalis subspecies of the Australian Magpie has plumage intermediate between the White-backed subspecies and the Black-backed subspecies. When the Magpies are nesting, the male becomes very aggressive, attacking any passerby. So people on bicycles or walking nearby wear motorcycle helmets to protect themselves. If this were to happen here, the birds would probably be eliminated. But in WA policemen are stationed nearby to warn people about the birds’ attacks.





Fred also identified the birds below as "Grey Currawongs (Strepera versicolor). This is the intermedia subspecies that ranges from SA through southern WA. There are two other subspecies of the Grey, and there are also
two other Currawong species - the Pied Currawong of the east coast and the Black Currawong of Tasmania.











And Fred says, for the bird below, walking through the brush...

There are two white=tailed black cockatoos in WA. They are nearly identical except for habitat and bill.

Carnaby’s (Short-billed) Black-Cockatoo      (Zanda latirostris)
and
Baudin’s (Long-billed) Black-Cockatoo (Zanda baudinii)

Baudin’s is a creature of the Yarri forests; Carnaby’s is more widespread in range but is Endangered
because of habitat destruction.  My guess:  Baudin’s based on habitat … but the bill looks short.




Another day I found what looks to be the same bird, a little more out in the open but in the same location. Fred guesses Short-billed.


Many days and identifications later, this lovely bird appeared. I searched the internet and found that it is a common dove in Australia: Common Bronzewing.




Brush Bronzewing
Another Brush Bronzewing
Grey Shrike-thrush