OLIVE WHISTLER

Photographed at Toolangi State Forest, Victoria November 2015

732               OLIVE WHISTLER             Pachycephala olivacea   

Australia         (575)

Found in alpine thickets, wetter rainforests/forests/woodlands; watercourse-vegetation; coastal tee-tree/paperbark scrubs, heaths; blackberries, gardens. More open habitats autumn and winter. In ne. NSW-se Queensland beech forest above c. 500 m. 20-22 cm. Range: coastal se Australia: from far se SA-sw Vic. patchily to Otway Ras. (Vic), n. coastal to se Q. in wetter forests/alpine woods of Gt. Dividing Ra, to about 1500 m; inland to c. Ballarat-Victorian Alps-Snowy-Brindabella Ra. (ACT)-Blue Mts (NSW). Dispersing to lowlands in autumn-winter.Uncommon, sedentary, altitudinal migrant.

Subspecies macphersoniana, at Gloucester Tops, NSW

PILOTBIRD

Barely recognisable photograph of a Pilotbird at Toolangi State Forest, Victoria November 2015

731                 PILOTBIRD             Pycnoptilus floccosus

Australia            (574)

Found in leaf-litter, ferns, sword-grass, wire-grass, fallen logs of temperate forest, wet eucalypt forest, and alpine and drier coastal woodland; gardens adjacent to forests. 16.5-17.5 cm. Range: patchily distributed in forests and dense scrubs in coastal and highland areas of Gt. Dividing Ra. from Dandenong Ras.-Wilson's Prom. (Vic) inland to Brindabella Ra. (ACT); n. to n. Blue Mountains, Heathecote NP, s. of Sydney (NSW). Mostly on ranges and in denser coastal forests from sea-level to c. 500 m. Fairly common. Sedentary.

CAPE GANNET

Photographed nesting on Point Danger Coastal Reserve, Portland, Victoria November 2015

730             CAPE GANNET             Morus capensis

Australia           (573)

Breeds islands off South Africa, ranging n. in winter. Vagrants recorded in Australia since 1986. 90 cm; wingspan 1.8 cm.

GILBERT'S WHISTLER

Photogrpahed at Terrick Terrick National Park, Victoria November 2015

729             GILBERT’S WHISTLER              Pachycephala inornata

Australia            (572)

Found in taller drier scrubs; woodlands with dense understorey; mallee-spinifex, cypress-pine, mulga, belar, buloke, coastal tee-tree; black box/lignum, broom honey myrtle. 19-20 cm. Range: from Warrumbungles NP-Cowra-Tocumwal (NSW), s to upper Murray R (Vic)- Chiltern-Nagambie (casual You Yangs), w to Wimmeraand mallee areas of nw Vic; in SA Murray mallee-flinders Ras to n Yorke Pen-Eyre., w. to Gawler Ras-Gt Victoria Desert; in s WA, through s W. Deserts, w and n to Menzies-Paynes Find-Yalgoo, s.to c. Northam-Narrogin-Albany. Uncommon. Sedentary or nomadic.

AUSTRALASIAN BITTERN

Photographed at Fiveborough Wetlands, Leeton, NSW November 2015 (at about 8 pm)

728          AUSTRALASIAN BITTERN        Botaurus poiciloptilus

Australia            (571)

Also called Australian or Brown Bittern. 66-76 cm; wingspan 1-1.2 m. Found in, or over, water in tall reed-beds, sedges, rushes, combungi, lignum, also rice fields; drains in tussocky paddocks; occasionally salt marsh, brackish wetlands. Seldom in trees. Range: coastal and sub-coastal se Aust., esp. Murray-Murrumbidgee region; se Tas., far s WA; casual Kimberley (WA). Sedentary, uncommon.

SHY HEATHWREN

Photographed at Nombinnie nature Reserve, NSW November 2015

727             SHY HEATHWREN              Hylacola cauta

Australia           (570)

Also called Mallee Heathwren. 11.5-14 cm. Found in mallee, cypress pine, heathy mallee/tea-tree. Range: mallee areas of w. NSW-nw Vict.-se SA (and Kangaroo Is, n to s. Flinders Ras.-Gawler Ras.; in s WA, n. to Kalgoolie-Murchison R.; except w. of Dongala-Stirling NP. Uncommon, sedentary.

INDIAN PEAFOWL

Photographed at Leichhardt Dam, near Mount Isa, Queensland October 2015

(see 263)               INDIAN PEAFOWL             Pavo cristatus

Nepal     (1),        Australia      (569)

Also known as Blue Peafowl and Common Peafowl; commonly the male is called Peacock and hen called Peahen. Range: it is native to south-east Asia but there are now small feral populations in many countries around the world where it has been introduced; in Australia small populations around settlements. It is the National bird of India. Found mainly on the ground in open forests or on cultivated ground. Male 2-2.3 m, including train; female c. 1 m.

MASKED OWL

Photographed near Atherton, Queensland October 2015

726              MASKED OWL            Tyto novaehollandiae

Australia            (568)

Found in forest; open woodlands, farmlands with large trees, e.g. river red gums, adjacent cleared country; partly forested coastal plains in Vic.; timbered watercourses, paperbark, woodlands, caves. 33-35 cm. Female larger. Range: coastal mainland Aust., widespread but very sparse. Race: melvillensis more common on Bathurst Island, Melville Island (NT); Race: castanets in Tasmania, fairly common and widespread. Sedentary.

Photographed in Tasmania, May 2022