WHISKERED TERN

409       WHISKERED TERN           Chlidonias hybrida

Australia          (283)

Largest marsh tern, 25-27 cm, wingspan 70 cm. Found in vegetated and open wetland; brackish, saline lakes; saltfields, irrigated land, sewerage ponds. Range most of mainland Australia except driest areas of WA/SA/NT.

FRECKLED DUCK

Photographed at Forbes, NSW, October 2014

408          FRECKLED DUCK          Stictonetta naevosa

Australia          (282)

Also known as Monkey Duck. 48-59 cm. Found in large well-vegetated swamps, in dry periods moves to open lakes. Ranges across sw WA and se quarter of mainland Australia. Rare, irruptive, nomadic.

Female, photographed near Werribee, Victoria February 2015

WHISTLING KITE

407             WHISTLING KITE                 Haliastur sphenurus

Australia              (281)

Also incorrectly called the Whistling Eagle. Ranges over most of Australia, except the driest inland of WA and SA. Found in open forests, foothills, usually near water, timbered watercourses, lakes, tidal inlets, swamps and mudflats. 50-60 cm, wingspan 1.2 m.

BANDED STILT

406           BANDED STILT              Cladorhynchus leucocephalus

Australia          (280)

Nomadic but endemic to Australia. 36-45 cm. Found in shallow salt lakes, salt marshes, claypans, tidal mudflats, commercial salt fields, occasionally flooded claypans, shallow freshwater lakes. Usually in a flock, may be thousands. Range se WA up to Shoal Bay, bottom se of NT, e 2/3 of SA, w of NSW and w 3/4 of Vic.