Australian Bustard

 Encountering Bustards is mostly a matter of luck. From my experience they are most often found when driving and birds are seen by chance on or beside roads. When encountered they will often freeze before slowly walking away or taking flight.

We recently came upon a male bustard in Sturt National Park beside a detour track around the Waka Claypan on the Cameron Corner Road. The claypan at the time contained a good amount of water and about two thousand water birds, mostly Grey Teal (1). 

Moving at slow speed on the detour track we were able to pull to a halt adjacent to the bird which remained on open ground. Taking photos of the bird from the vehicle was possible while it was at first in a freeze stance and then lifting its wings slightly and then making a head turn before it started to walk away.  All typical behaviour.

NOTE: You can left click on any photo to open a slide show of the photos free of text or a right click enables one photo at a time to be opened in a New Tab where an enlarged version can be viewed.

The bird then commenced to strut about and then ruffle its feathers, jump a couple of times, attempt a take-off and spread its large broad wings. 

This seemed somewhat strange behaviour until a young female bird walked from behind a nearby bush.

Explaining bird behaviour is a challenge at the best of times and subject to anthropomorphic traps. In this instance I think we can conclude that the male bustards behaviour was for the benefit of the young female bustard and not us. This may have been a form of protective display as it was not a mating/courting display which is very distinctive and involves a pendulous breast sac and leks where a number of males gather to display in competition for females.

Both birds appear to be sub adults. Male bustards are larger than the females however in this case the female seems to be much smaller suggesting it is a juvenile with some growing still required to reach full maturity.

The male then moved away slowly stopping to pick at a possible food item on the ground.

We then noticed a road train carrying cattle approaching around the detour, ending the observation of the pair and further photos. We had to move as there was not enough space for the truck to pass us.

Note (1) Recent heavy rain across outback NW NSW, SW Qld and SA has resulted in many ephemeral water bodies which have attracted large numbers of waterbirds. Before the Bustard encounter we had just completed a Birdata survey on the Waka Claypan, where, using a spotting scope, we recorded 1,800 Grey Teal, 150 Pink-eared Duck, 10 Hardhead, 2 Pacific Black Duck and 2 Red-necked Avocet.  

Eastern Great Egret

 We camped at Wingan Inlet in the Croagingolong National Park in early June 2026, six and half years since the devastating 2019/20 Black Summer fires burnt out large areas of the Park including the Wingan campground. While the recovery of vegetation is significant the fauna is probably much slower to recover. 

To reach the ocean beach from the campground, a pleasant half hour walk is required, mostly around the inlet and including two sections of boardwalk. On one of these walks an Azure Kingfisher was sighted perched on a dead branch jutting out over the water and while taking a somewhat distant photo of such a small bird an Eastern Great Egret (Ardea alba modesta)(1), which was out of sight a little further along the shoreline, suddenly flushed and flew up to a perch directly above where the Kingfisher had been seconds before. As luck would have it my camera was ready giving me the opportunity to capture a sequence of front-on flight shots of this magnificent bird. 

It is not often a bird flies into the frame of your camera. Mostly careful consideration is needed for how to approach a subject to get near enough and in a suitable position for a photo without the bird taking flight.

NOTE: You can left click on any photo to open a slide show of the photos free of text or a right click enables one photo at a time to be opened in a New Tab where an enlarged version can be viewed.

The Azure Kingfisher is one of our smallest avian fish hunters, a piscivore.

The Great Egret is one of our largest avian fish hunters and is also a piscivore.

The above photos were the only ones taken with 35 seconds between the Kingfisher shot and the last photo. A lucky opportunity but not much time to capture the action. 

Note (1)

Recently the Australian and Southern Asia Great Egret populations have been separated, hence Eastern now designates the Australian sub species Ardea alba modesta. There seems to be nothing modest about the Great Egret in terms of size, however regarding the species name modesta Fraser and Gray in Australian Bird Names point out modesta comes from the Latin modestus meaning moderate, gentle, forbearing, temperate, sober, unassuming and discrete so the name aims to capture the birds demeanour/behaviour and not its size.

Immature Pacific Gull

 Early one calm overcast late autumn morning I found a surf fisher and his young daughter on the ocean beach at Lake Bunga - a short distance east of Lakes Entrance - surrounded by thirty Silver Gulls and one immature Pacific Gull (1).  I counted the gulls while recording birds for a Birdata survey. The close gathering of gulls indicated food was on offer. 

I had just counted the gulls when the Pacific Gull broke from the crowd of Silver Gulls and flew to the shoreline below where I was standing. Several Silver Gulls followed the larger Pacific Gull which had scavenged the tail end of a fish discarded by the fisher (2).  

The following time order sequence of photos shows the Pacific Gull trying to swallow the choice morsel while closely attended by two ever hopeful Silver Gulls.

NOTE: You can left click on any photo to open a slide show of the photos free of text or a right click enables one photo at a time to be opened in a New Tab where an enlarged version can be viewed.

The next shot captures the fish being dropped – a chance for the Silver Gulls to wrest the food item from the Pacific Gull.

The fish tail was quickly recovered.

Though covered in sand the Pacific Gull starts to swallow the food.

However it aborted this attempt and moved into the water where it washed the sand off.

Free of sand, the Pacific Gull now has another attempt to swallow the fish tail.

Finally after one minute from the first photo the food item is going down.

Birds always swallow fish head-first for obvious reasons. I am not sure if sand is always removed by washing. By-catch and discarded bait from human fishing, amateur or commercial, is a significant source of food for many seabirds.

Notes:

(1) The Pacific Gull fledges as a juvenile bird with dark brown feathers and bill and then moults head feathers first, which become white. The bill retains a dark tip but the rest changes to a bone colour. It takes five years to reach full adult plumage. 

(2) The fish was most likely an Australian Salmon.

Spotted Quail-thrush

 The Spotted Quail-thrush (1) (Cinclosoma punctatum) is an endemic Australian species which is sedentary and generally uncommon but may be relatively abundant at a local level. Our largest Quail-thrush, it is found in SE Australian forests and is the only forest dwelling Quail-thrush – the other six Quail-thrush species inhabit arid and semi-arid country, whereas the spotted prefer open dry forest with suitable understory and ground cover but not too dense or wet.

Their range extends East of the Great Dividing Range from SE Qld through NSW and Victoria to Tasmania. The Mt Lofty Ranges population in South Australia is now extinct. There is one 2015 record in Birdata from SA near the Victorian border. The sighting was submitted to SA Rarities and Distribution Sub-Committee and accepted as SARC 81.

Spotted Quail-thrush are variously described as shy, timid, retiring and elusive. Their high pitched contact calls are inaudible to many people including me, so finding them by calls is problematic. They can be found by flushing with their distinctive whirring of very short wings (see photos) and they may fly up to a perch briefly before flying some distance to the ground and cover. 

However they run rapidly over rough undulating ground and generally prefer to run for cover rather than flush and fly. They are most often seen by road sides from moving vehicles when they generally retreat to cover giving only brief glimpses.

Being ground dwelling and nesting birds they mostly walk, hence they have strong legs and short wings. Their moderately large eyes indicate adaptation for  life in dense understorey with low light. Their food consists of insects, seeds and small lizards taken from or close to the ground.

Dimorphic male and female plumage is quite different – see photos. Both male and female are stunningly beautiful birds with richly coloured and patterned markings for camouflage which is typical of many ground dwelling birds.

Given the characteristics outlined above it is not surprising that photo opportunities are hard to come by for all of the Quail-thrush species. The following photos of both a female (first) and a male Spotted Quail-thrush were taken by chance on separate occasions in forest East of Lake Tyers while primarily looking for Glossy Black-Cockatoos in Black She-oak understory.

NOTE: You can left click on any photo to open a slide show of the photos free of text or a right click enables one photo at a time to be opened in a New Tab where an enlarged version can be viewed.

The female - note the very small and short wings and the relatively large eye.

The male.

The forests South of the Princes Highway and East of Lakes Entrance through to the Snowy River seem to me to be particularly rich with Spotted Quail-thrush. I have often wondered if this is due to the long running Southern Ark fox baiting program. While the habitat in this area suits them well, being ground dwellers and nesters Spotted Quail-thrush are vulnerable to fox and cat predation so reduced fox numbers would help them achieve greater breeding success. 

On the other hand I have noticed Lace Monitors are numerous in this same area possibly due to reduced fox predation and these large reptiles are top order predators which often take eggs and nestlings from bird nests. Hopefully the outcome of this mix of factors has resulted in an ecological balance, although our intervention with poison baits it is not a natural one. While the Southern Ark program benefits birds I think its main aim was to assist ground dwelling marsupials such as bandicoots and potoroos. 

NOTE (1): Quail-thrush name confusion - not a quail or a thrush. The following quote from Fraser and Gray,  Australian Bird Names a Complete Guide, gives a good and humorous comment on the confusion:

“ Why ‘quail-thrush’, a forced-blend of names of utterly unrelated birds not even belonging to the same Order, should be ‘more appropriate’ is beyond us but we suspect that the port decanter played a role. Well, we suppose that they (the quail-thrushes, not the committee) spend most of their time on the ground, like a quail, and sort of sing, sort of like a thrush…” 

Crested Shrike-tit

 In East Gippsland we are always excited to find a Crested Shrike-tit as they are somewhat uncommon in this region, but across the whole range of the Eastern Shrike-tit sub-species (Falcunculus frontatus, they vary from rare to common in optimum habitat. There are two other sub-species, Western and Northern.

We discovered they can be common on a recent BirdLife East Gippsland Autumn Camp based in Chiltern in late March 2026, when camp participants were delighted to encounter them in a number of locations and habitats.

The following survey records from Birdata (1) reveal the difference in abundance between the two areas:

Birdata BirdLife East Gippsland East Gippsland regional group area, total surveys 51,000, Crested Shrike-tit records 766.

Birdata Ovens Murray regional group area, which covers the autumn camp locations, total surveys 48,553 (a similar survey effort to East Gippsland), Crested Shrike-tit records 2,885.

The ratio is 766/2,885 or 1 to 3.77 - therefore in suitable/optimum habitat, especially Mt Pilot National Park box-ironbark woodland, we are nearly 4 times as likely to come across a Crested Shrike-tit in the Ovens Murray region than in East Gippsland. It is always nice when the data confirms the “in-the-field” experience.

The following photos are of two males from two locations in the Chiltern area - note the black throat, the females have an olive-green throat. The powerful black bill is used to glean invertebrate food from bark and rotting wood so they are often detected by the sound of shredding bark.

NOTE: You can left click on any photo to open a slide show of the photos free of text or a right click enables one photo at a time to be opened in a New Tab where an enlarged version can be viewed.

The bird in the following photo shows a hint of the crest which is not often seen fully raised.

As the photos reveal, Crested Shrike-tits are strikingly beautiful birds, which goes someway to explaining why finding them is always special, irrespective of their local abundance.

NOTE 1: Birdata is BirdLife Australia’s national database for bird survey records. Here is a link to Birdata – you will need to create an account to access the database if you do not already have one. A smart phone version for recording surveys in the field is available at the App Store .

https://birdata.birdlife.org.au/explore#map=-22.5083100_136.0786120_4

Restless Flycatcher

 All Flycatcher species are well known for their aerial pursuit of insect and spider prey. This was certainly my experience, and until a recent encounter with a Restless Flycatcher (Myiagra inquieta), I did not realise that they also forage on the ground.

The bird in question was actively working the mid story to the canopy of the bushland until it moved to lower shrubs beside the track I was on, and then dropped to the ground where it walked about examining a number of ant nests. It then picked up an object from beside a nest which it held for a few seconds before flying with the object up into a small shrubby tree beside the track. I lost sight of the bird shortly after, so I can’t say what it did with this object.

After processing the photos later, I could not determine if the object was food or not – see photos below. I am inclined to think it was not, however I am intrigued to think Restless Flycatchers may include in their diet food items collected and discarded by ants.

HANZAB, the encyclopaedic Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, now available online, provides information on Restless Flycatcher foraging, including this snippet:

Doubtfully, claimed they steal food from ants, hovering above ants carrying food back to their nests, then pounce to take food from them (Bright 1935).

While solid evidence is required, it seems possible to me that some birds, when food resources are scarce, may learn to steal insect food items from ants. Flycatchers certainly have the physical ability to do this easily.

HANZAB provides data for Restless Flycatcher foraging, which in general terms indicates they forage on the ground at least 25% of the time. The rest of the time foraging is on the wing, using both hovering and sallying.

NOTE: You can left click on any photo to open a slide show of the photos free of text or a right click enables one photo at a time to be opened in a New Tab where an enlarged version can be viewed.

This link to an earlier Avithera post shows photos and information for a number of the Myiagra flycatchers.

https://avithera.blogspot.com/2015/04/flycatchers.html

Gang-gang Cockatoos

Who does not have a soft spot for Gang-gangs? 

The male’s forward curling bright red wispy crest, the distinctive raspy, creaking, rusty hinge calls, their gregarious family parties and small flocks and their remarkably confiding nature, which at times, especially while feeding, often allows very close approach, all contribute to the unique character of this beautiful bird. 

What’s not to like about Gang-gangs?

NOTE: You can left click on any photo to open a slide show of the photos free of text or a right click enables one photo at a time to be opened in a New Tab where an enlarged version can be viewed.

A small post breeding flock of up to 15 birds was resident at our property on the Nicholson River at Sarsfield from mid January to mid February (1),  then one day they were gone (2). They spent a good part of most days feeding and resting high in tall eucalypts. The begging calls of young could be heard now and again. Late in the day and especially on hot days they came down to drink at one of our stock troughs.

Female at stock trough late on a hot day to drink.

Gang-gangs eat seeds, especially eucalypt and acacia seeds, and fruits. They are very fond of the fruits of the introduced Hawthorn tree (Crataegus monogyna) which coincides with their migration down from the high country in autumn ahead of harsh winter conditions. They also eat the fruits of native shrubs such as blue olive berry, aka Blueberry Ash (Elaeocarpus reticulatus) as seen in the following two photos.

Since the 2019-2020 Black Summer bush fires when a large amount of Gang-gang habitat was destroyed, including both food and nest hollow trees, their conservation status has been uplisted from vulnerable to endangered.

In response to the fires a number of nest box projects were undertaken - our property and the adjoining riparian strip on the Nicholson River and state forest was severely burnt in the 2019/20 Black Summer fires. Six boxes made specifically for Gang-gangs were erected high in Manna Gums (E viminalis) along the river on our property at Sarsfield in May 2022 and in other locations. We also have eleven smaller post fire nest boxes for species such as rosellas. 

The Gang-gang boxes were installed using a cherry-picker type machine – see photo - at 15-19 metres high so they are too high to monitor with a pole mounted camera which has been used to monitor the smaller boxes located at lower heights.

After four years since their installation none of the Gang-gang boxes have been used by any bird species. We now understand Gang-gangs will not use artificial nest boxes (3). The eleven smaller boxes have only been used twice by birds, once by a White-throated Treecreeper (4) and once by Crimson Rosellas. Monitoring showed many of the boxes were used by feral honeybees for the first two years but now the bees have gone. The boxes have been used by Sugar Gliders (Petaurus breviceps) with up to seven boxes occupied by eleven Sugar Gliders at one count. A Ring-tail Possum has also been found in one box. The Gliders move about using most of the boxes at one time or another, so use by birds for nesting is restricted as Sugar Gliders are a threat to eggs and young, which they will eat.

Gang-gangs prefer natural nest holes in the trunk or dead branch of tall living trees, especially eucalypts, standing near water and nest holes are invariably at great height (5). 

The future of endangered Gang-gangs depends on breeding success which is linked to large old hollow bearing trees located in or adjacent to riparian habitats and the protection of this critical habitat.

NOTES:

(1) There is a known breeding pair just over 3km from us – they successfully raised two male chicks in the 2025/26 season (3).

(2) Gang-gangs are sedentary to nomadic and are partially altitudinal migrants ranging up to alpine areas over the warmer months and spending autumn and winter in lowland forests.

(3) The observation that Gang-gangs do not use artificial nest boxes came from Canberra based researchers who banded the two chicks referred to in Note (1) above. 

(4) See earlier Avithera post on use of nest box by White-throated Treecreepers. 

https://avithera.blogspot.com/2022/10/white-throated-treecreeper-using-next.html

(5) Source Australian Parrots, 2nd ed, by Joseph M Forshaw, illustrated by William T Cooper.

Black Swans - aggressive behaviour at nests

Black Swan necks have evolved great length (1) which helps them reach benthic vegetation in both fresh and saline shallow waters. With their necks fully stretched and by upending, dabbling, swans extend the area of potential food habitat available to them, and they also graze on land. The Gippsland Lakes have large areas of relatively shallow waters with rich beds of aquatic vegetation making ideal habitat for Black Swans which are generally abundant and can be found at times in large numbers in some locations on the Lakes (2), especially where there are large sea-grass meadows.

Swan breeding on the Gippsland Lakes tends to be episodic, that is in irregular bursts triggered by food abundance in response to unpredictable but favourable environmental conditions, especially after good rains. The last big swan breeding event on the Lakes took place back in 2019 when large numbers of swans could be found in many locations on nests and on the water with cygnets (3).

Swans can breed alone or in colonies. In colonies aggressive behaviour between nesting birds is often on display. Distance between nests can be established by the length of a very long outstretched neck. Some individual birds seem to be particularly intolerant of other birds near their nests. Signs of swan aggression include arched neck with feathers raised, hissing, pecking and so on which is termed Agonistic behaviour (4).

The following photos capture some of this behaviour with one swan demonstrating just how long their necks are.

NOTE: You can left click on any photo to open a slide show of the photos free of text or a right click enables one photo at a time to be opened in a New Tab where an enlarged version can be viewed.

In the following photo the swan shows the arched neck with feathers held out – bristling - and the wings are also held slightly out.

The next photo shows the cause of the threat display – another swan too close to its nest.

The following photo shows a swan on a nest with an outstretched neck, which is a show of aggression towards another swan on an adjoining nest. There was plenty of space available however these two swans have ended up with nests just within pecking reach.

Recently hatched cygnets on a nest.

This young chick is struggling to climb back into a nest.

The Swan’s musical bugle is distinctive and evocative of wetland habitats.

Black Swans are an iconic bird species in Australia and especially in Western Australia where they were first found, by non-indigenous people, when the Dutch explorer Willem Hesselsz de Vlamingh discovered them in 1697 on the subsequently named Swan River in WA. They are the WA State bird featuring on their coat of arms and the name Black Swan has been adopted for many purposes from the name of beer to a football team. More recently a Black Swan event, aka a Black Swan, has been adopted to describe a highly unlikely and unpredictable occurrence that has major worldwide repercussions, usually dire ones, but which, in hindsight, the factors leading up to the event were obvious (for those interested the origin of this recently coined term this can easily be found with a Google search).

Notes:

(1) Fun fact: Black swans have 25 neck (cervical) vertebrae. This high number of vertebrae provides their long necks with exceptional flexibility, far exceeding the seven cervical vertebrae typically found in most mammals. Taxonomists classify waterfowl based on the number of cervical vertebrae they have. Ducks have 16 or fewer neck vertebrae, geese have 17-23 neck vertebrae, and swans have 24 or 25 neck vertebrae. I assume the large number of swan neck vertebrae originated in their dinosaur ancestors? You would think Giraffes have a large number of neck vertebrae but they only have seven, the same number as humans and almost all other mammals. 

(2) For example on 26/01/2026 BirdLife East Gippsland members counted from the lookout at Nyerimilang Park 1,200 Black Swans on the Lake in the vicinity of Fraser and Flannagan Islands.

(3) Swan breeding: Usually 5-6 eggs and up to 10 with incubation taking 35-45 days. The following text taken from the Reader’s Digest, The Complete Book of Australian Birds, provides an interesting summary of Black Swan reproduction which can seem rather chaotic at times: 

“Black Swans are ready to breed at the age of 18 months, and most breed before the end of 3 years. Young birds about to breed for the first time may form a pair only temporarily – if a clutch is produced, either partner may leave the other to incubate the eggs and raise the young alone. The deserting partner usually mates again to rear another brood. In this way there may be as many as four broods in the one year from clutches laid by one female. Among older birds pair formation is generally permanent, but if a mate is lost the remaining bird will quickly mate again. The nest is a mound of whatever material – sticks, leaves, rushes or other aquatic plants – can be accumulated around the incubating bird. Its construction may begin just before or, or if the nest is on an island, soon after the first egg is laid and may continue for at least three or four weeks during egg-laying and incubation. Depending on the supply of material, the size of the nest will vary from a simple ring of plant matter to a large mound. On islands where swans breed in colonies, nests are often destroyed as the swans pilfer one another’s nest material. As eggs are deserted and scattered, neighbouring swans scrape them into their nests and incubate them.”

(4) Agonistic behaviour in birds involves aggressive interactions over resources like food, mates, or territory, using signals like vocalisations, displays such as threat postures and physical attacks including chasing, pecking and biting.