SOUTHERN EMU-WREN

543         SOUTHERN EMU-WREN            Stipiturus malachurus

Australia          (384)

Also known as Button-grass Wren and Stickball. 15-19 cm, incl. tail 9-12 cm. Found in heaths with 'grasstrees', banksias, hakes, rushes, sedges, scrubby thickets, lignum, montane gullies, subalpine grasslands, heathy woodlands; in Tas. button-grass plains, montane moors; in sw. WA dune-vegetation, sand plain-heaths, dry eucalypt, acacia-spinifex. Range: coastal WA from Shark Bay south to SA border; Eyre Pen. (SA) from Adelaide coastal to Vic. border; coastal Vic., NSW to above Brisbane in Q.; all Tas.

NOTE: Up to eleven subspecies have been described with seven being recognised. 

Subspecies westernensis photographed at Cheyenne's Beach, WA, November 2016

Subspecies littleri, photographed on South Coast Track, Tasmania February 2017

CASPIAN TERN

Photographed Coffin Bay National Park, South Australia March 2015

542          CASPIAN TERN              Sterna caspia

Australia       (383)

Largest of the terns. 48-55 cm; wingspan 1.1-1.4 m. Found coastal, offshore waters; beaches, mudflats, estuaries, larger rivers, reservoirs, lakes, some inland. Range Aust, including Tasmania: seldom numerous. Not in driest parts of central Western Australia.

TAWNEY-CROWNED HONEYEATER

PhotographedLincoln National Park, South Australia March 2015

541        TAWNEY-CROWNED HONEYEATER             Phylidonyris melanops

Australia           (382)

16-17 cm. Found in heathlands; stunted banksia, sandplain vegetation; mallee, 'grass-tree country', blossoming eucalypt woodlands, regrowth, button-grass woodlands, strutters. Ranges from ne. NSW (Evans Head) to Eyre Pen. Kangaroo Is (SA), inlands to Blue Mountains (NSW); coastal e. Vic. to Big Desert NP. Coastal Tas.; In s WA widespread w. and s. of Israelite Bay-Norseman-southern Cross-Murchison R.

Photographed Coffin Bay National Park, South Australia March 2015