Birds in Their Habitats
Page 25
Tails, like tales, can even be heard: some species of snipe have a pair of stiff outstretched tail feathers that vibrate as they dive to earth, making a sound often described as ‘bleating’.
Barkly Tableland, Northern Territory: grassy expanses
We had driven for ages, seemingly, through a loose endless flock of Australian Pratincoles, springing into the air from the roadside and bouncing lightly over the blond grasslands with their loose long-winged flight, broad chestnut breast band and red bill, legs trailing beyond the tail-tip.
Given the plight of southern Australian native grasslands, reduced to fragments and rarely protected, I find it most exhilarating to drive the vast grassy distances of the tropical Barkly in the north-east of the Northern Territory. The tableland comprises over 100 000 km2 of land so flat that there is less than 50 m of altitude variation over the entire area. The Barkly Highway, which runs east from Tennant Creek for over 400 km to the Queensland border, only enters the true Barkly Tableland in the far east of its route. To see the great grasslands properly it is best to drive north from the Barkly Roadhouse on the Tablelands Highway. (Look for Tennant Creek on Google Earth, then go east –the clay soils of the tableland show up clearly against the red sands to the south and west.)
The cracking clays expand and contract with heat and rain, opening deep crevices and closing them again, so that the roots of tree saplings are ripped apart; only the tough tussocks of Mitchell Grasses can establish there.
I have another motive for driving the Barkly whenever I get a chance to: it is a stronghold for the Letter-winged Kite, a rare bird of prey that has hitherto avoided me. It’s strange having a bête noir that is white! (I’ve alluded to the intriguing breeding strategy of this bird previously – see page 126.) On this occasion, a hovering white raptor caught our attention and I pulled over rapidly, making sure we were well away from the rushing road train behemoths that ply the highway. Not for the first time, however, the lovely and oddly gull-like hawk turned out to be a Black-shouldered Kite, a common and familiar bird throughout mainland Australia. It and the Letter-winged are two of four similar, and closely related, species of the genus Elanus found throughout much of the world, though only in Australia is there more than one.
Wind hovering
Never mind, I never really expect to see Letter-wings anyway (which is maybe why I don’t!) and a hovering hawk is always worth admiring. The Elanus kites tend to stand almost erect in the air, compared with the other great wind-hoverers, the kestrels, a subgroup of a dozen or so small falcons. We looked earlier at ‘true’ hovering (see page 51), the doyens of which, the hummingbirds, hang in the air by remarkable and hugely energy-expensive wing movements, rapidly pushing back and then forwards again with equal force, as well of course as resisting gravity. The Elanus kites and kestrels don’t do this – they’re probably too big – but they do something equally impressive in its own way, in balancing themselves against the wind, using constantly adjusted wind beats and fanned tail to neutralise its impact. ‘Windhover’ is an old English name for the Common Kestrel (see Photo 30).
Moreover, because they are hunting – wind hovering is a way of perching wherever you think there might be lunch below, irrespective of whether there’s a tree there – hovering birds need to have a clearly focussed view of the ground, for which they need a still head. Accordingly, they go to great trouble to fix the position of their head in the air, while the body moves as required, much as a bird watching the ground from a swaying branch does.
Legs dangling down, the Barkly kite suddenly dropped towards the ground, then resumed hovering now only 20 or so metres above the ground. Suddenly it parachuted down, wings erect, scuffled on the ground and flew up again with a rodent dangling from its claws; out here it could well be the Letter-wing’s favoured meal of Long-haired Rat. With no trees around, it flew to a roadside post, where we could see through the binoculars how it was still rhythmically clenching and loosening its claws, crushing the chest of the little victim before dismembering it.
Far away at the coast, terns have similarly shaped long pointed wings, and are also hovering experts, balancing against the wind above the waves before plunging down onto fish or shrimp. Unusually in its Family, the Pied Kingfisher of Africa and Asia also hovers above the water to hunt: in still conditions, it can even ‘truly’ hover for short periods of time, without relying on the wind.
Soaring birds ride the wind; wind hoverers skilfully lean on it.
Other memories of woodlands and grasslands
Like grains of pollen shaken free from a grass head by a passing breeze to drift over the plains and drop arbitrarily to earth, often to perish, sometimes to land on a receptive flower to start new life, here are some images from grasslands and woodlands:
• Driving in pre-dawn light through the bare understorey of dry broad-leaved woodland in Benoué National Park in central Cameroon, the group’s primary aim is the poorly known Adamawa Turtle Dove, which may come to drink at a pool on the Benoué River at sun-up, so the pause for one of the highlights of the trip felt all too brief. Perched low on a sloping trunk were two dimly seen huge black birds, more than a metre high, with enormous bills topped with strange knobs, long legs and blue faces. The male had a red throat pouch, the female a blue one. It would be another 2 years before I had a chance to properly enjoy Abyssinian Ground Hornbills – and the dove didn’t show.
• The channel country of south-west Queensland is a remarkable place: vast expanses of cracking black soil plains of Mitchell Grass braided with hundreds of stream channels, sometimes dry with occasional deep permanent holes, at other times overflowing to form an endless wetland. On a broad grassy stage between two channel crossings, two lines of big grey cranes faced each other in a wild and wonderful group dance, a member of each pair on either side. They tossed clumps of grass into the air and tried to catch or stab them as they fell, leaping into the air and touching lightly down, stretching high and bugling: a magnificent blast of sound echoing across the plains, enabled by a long coiled trachea that part-fills the chest cavity. Dancing Brolgas are one of the joys of life.
• An afternoon drive in the short-grassed savannah of Murchison Falls National Park in western Uganda, scattered with big palms and hardy acacias, is an experience to open eyelids drooping after many long days on the road and many early mornings. Groups of African Bush Elephants appear in the landscape, Giraffes process across the stage, Uganda Kob, Oribi, purple-rusty Hartebeest, Waterbuck, Bushbuck, Warthogs and rusty Patas Monkeys make their appearances. And, at last, 2 years after my frustratingly fleeting pre-dawn experience of them, three magnificent Abyssinian Ground Hornbills stalk slowly across the plain – and are almost upstaged! Behind them is another big bird, solitary this time, looking even more unlikely than the hornbills. A Secretarybird is a highly specialised bird of prey, warranting its own Family – and no wonder! It is a long-legged, long-necked, long-tailed grey bird with a disarray of long black feathers sticking back from its eagle-like head, black wings, tail and half-trousers. It mince-shuffles along watching for prey, especially snakes, like a tall person trying to maintain dignity while wearing very loose shoes. I am totally entranced.
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Bird species index
Taxonomy per IOC World Bird List Version 7.2 (retrieved from http://www.worldbirdnames.org/classification/family-index/ on 18 May 2017).
Page numbers in bold indicate photographs.
Albatross, Black-browed (Thalassarche melanophris) 73
Albatross, Waved (Phoebastria irrorata) 74, 90, 116
Antpitta, Chestnut-crowned (Grallaria ruficapilla) 39
Antpitta, Giant (Grallaria gigantea) 38–9
Antpitta, Moustached (Grallaria alleni) 39
Antpitta, Ochre-breasted (Grallaria flavirostris) 39
Antpitta, Yellow-breasted (Grallaria flavotincta) 39
Avocet, Andean (Recurvirostra andina) 22
Babbler, White-browed (Pomatostomus superciliosus) 160
Bananaquit (Coereba flaveola) 59
Barbet, Golden-naped (Psilopogon pulcherrimus) 34–6, 109
Bee-eater, Rainbow (Merops ornatus) 174
Bee-eater, White-throated (Merops albicollis) 17
Bellbird, Crested (Oreoica gutturalis) 1, 8
Blackbird, Eurasian (Turdus merula) 152
Blackeye, Mountain (Chlorocharis emiliae) 34
Booby, Brown (Sula leucogaster) 75
Bowerbird, Satin (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) 141
Bowerbird, Tooth-billed (Scenopoeetes dentirostris) 141
Brolga (Antigone rubicunda) 10, 194–6, 208
Bronzewing, Flock (Phaps histrionica) 13
Brushturkey, Australian (Alectura lathami) 204
Budgerigar (Melapsittacus undulatus) 6–8, 20, 107, 145
Bushshrike, Mount Kupé (Chlorophoneus kupeensis) 30
Bustard, Arabian (Ardeotis arabs) 18
Bustard, Australian (Ardeotis australis) 195–6
Bustard, Kori (Ardeotis kori) 81
Bustard, White-bellied (Eupodotis senegalensis) 15
Butcherbird, Grey (Cracticus torquatus) 154
Buttonquail, Painted (Turnix varius) 156
Buzzard, Black-breasted (Hamirostra melanosteron) 24
Canary, Atlantic (Serinus canaria) 145
Caracara, Chimango (Milvago chimango) 99, 125
Caracara, Southern Crested (Caracara plancus) 98
Cassowary, Southern (Casuarius cacuarius) 52
Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) 47
Cockatiel (Nymphicus novaehollandiae) 14
Cockatoo, Gang-gang (Callocephalon fimbriatum) 95
Cockatoo, Sulphur-crested (Cacatua galerita) 151, 153, 155
Cock-of-the-Rock, Andean (Rupicola peruvianus) 38, 43–5
Condor, Andean (Vultur gryphus) 79–80, 82, 86–7, 89, 94, 99, 114
Coot, Horned (Fulica cornuta) 103
Corella, Long-billed (Cacatua tenuirostris) 97
Cormorant, Bank (Phalacrocorax neglectus) 70
Cormorant, Cape (Phalacrocorax capensis) 70–1
Cormorant, Crowned (Microcarbo coronatus) 70
Cormorant, Flightless (Phalacrocorax harrisi) 68–71, 113
Cormorant, Great (Phalacrocorax carbo) 145
Cormorant, Guanay (Leucocarbo bougainvillii) 75
Cormorant, Red-legged (Phalacrocorax gaimardi) 71, 75
Cormorant, White-breasted (Phalacrocorax lucidus) 70
Crane, Black Crowned (Balearica pavonina) 18
Cuckoo, Channel-billed (Scythrops novaehollandiae) 159
Cuckoo, Guira (Guira guira) 176
Cuckoo-roller (Leptosomus discolor) 137
Curassow, Alagoas (Mitu mitu) 67
Currawong, Black (Strepera graculina) 62
Currawong, Pied (Strepera versicolor) 62, 153
Darter, Oriental (Anhinga melanogaster) 145
Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) 69
Donacobius, Black-capped (Donacobius atricapilla) 136
Dove, Bare-faced Ground (Metriopelia ceciliae) 88