HUDSONIAN WHIMBREL

Photographed at Toora, Victoria, November 2012

1314                  HUDSONIAN WHIMBREL                    Numenius hudsonicus       

AUSTRALIAN BIRDS                    799

Also known as the American Whimbrel. Migratory bird, wintering on the coasts in southern North America and South America. Roosts in mangroves. Feeds on small invertebrates and crabs in the soft tidal mud; feeds on berries before migration.

NOTE:   This would be a first record for Australia.

 

BLACK-EARED CATBIRD

Photographed in Iron Range, Queensland, January 2021

1313                     BLACK-EARED CATBIRD                     Ailuroedus melanotis 

AUSTRALIAN BIRDS                       798

Species of bowerbird found in New Guinea and North Queensland. Was considered a subspecies of Spotted Catbird but now elevated to full species. 

 

RED-BELLIED PITTA

Photographed in Iron Range National Park, January 2021

1312                     RED-BELLIED PITTA                 Pitta erythrogaster

AUSTRALIA                797

Wet season visitor to rainforests of Cape York peninsula. Breeds in the closed forests during wet season. Migrates to New Guinea in non-breeding season.

 

GRACEFUL HONEYEATER

Photographed in Iron Range, Queensland, January 2021

1311                 GRACEFUL HONEYEATER               Microptilis gracilis

AUSTRALIAN BIRDS                   796

The Graceful Honeyeater was split from the Cryptic Honeyeater in 2019. It ranges from Cape York, north of Cooktown up into southern New Guinea.

NORDMANN’S GREENSHANK

Photographed in Cairns, Queensland, January 2021

1310               NORDMANN'S GREENSHANK                    Tringa guttifer

AUSTRALIA                    795

Also known as Spotted Greenshank. Breeds in eastern Russia along south-west and northern coast of Sea of Okhotsk and on Sakhalin Island. Non-breeding range not fully understood but recorded in South Korea, mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia, as well as Japan, North Korea, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia. Endangered species with population estimated at between 500-1000 birds.