INTERMEDIATE EGRET

 

Photographed on Cocos Island, January 2023.

1319                  INTERMEDIATE EGRET                  Ardea intermedia                 

AUSTRALIA                    806

Split Intermediate Egret into three species on 23 September 2023: Yellow-billed Egret, Plumed Egret and Intermediate Egret. Intermediate Egret is found from Russia to Japan to South Indian Ocean and Greater Sundra. Stalks prey in shallow coastal or fresh water and flooded fields. Eats fish, frogs, crustaceans and insects.         

SCARLET-CHESTED PARROT

 

Gluepot, South Australia, May 2023

1318               SCARLET-CHESTED PARROT                Neophema splendida  

AUSTRALIA                    805

Found in mallee and other eucalypt woodlands, mulga, other acacia; belar, other shook, spinifex; saltbush, succulents. Reported Ito favour country burnt in recent years. Ranges across inland Australia, its heartland being Great Victorian Desert in SA/WA. In good seasons numbers increase, and over several years birds may extend to far sw Qleensland, western NSW, far nw Victorias, 'Murray Mallee' (SA)and even up to Alice Springs. Highly nomadic, irruptive.

BLACK TERN

Western Treatment Plant, Victoria, April 2023

 1317                     BLACK TERN                  Chlidonias niger   

AUSTRALIAN           804

Habitat includes freshwater lakes, swamps, floodwaters, sheltered coasts. Rare vagrant to Australia, this is the fourth sighting. Found in or near inland water in Europe, Western Asia and North America. This bird is the North American race, C. n. surinamensis, which is considered by some as a seperate species.

 

COMMON KINGFISHER

Photographed on Cocos Island, January 2023

(885)*              COMMON KINGFISHER                  Albedo atthis 

AUSTRALIA.                        803       

Occurs in all kind of water bodies on migration, including open streams, canals, reservoir edges, ponds with reedy fringes and mangrove creeks, seldom in forest streams. 17 cm. Widespread across much of Eurasia with many races; occurs east to Soloman Islands; winter visitor to Indian sub-continent and Southeast Asia.

 

Cocos Island, December 2023

WATERCOCK

 

Photographed on Cocos Island, January 2023

1316                   WATERCOCK                   Gallicrex cinerea

AUSTRALIA.                      802

Lives in wetlands, flooded crops, rivers, ponds; sometimes brackish water. Ranges across S and SE Asia with movement to the Philippines, Borneo and Indonesia in northern winter.Rare vagrant to Christmas and Cocos Islands, most records in December to March.

PURPLE HERON

Photographed on Cocos Island, January 2023

(261)               PURPLE HERON            Ardea purpurea

AUSTRALIA                801

Found in trees, bushes and emergent vegetation fringing wetlands. Widespread throughout Europe, Africa, Asia to Indonesia; vagrant to Australia. 

 

SEMI-PALMATED PLOVER

Photographed at Wellington Point, Queensland, December 2021

1315                SEMI-PALMATED PLOVER                 Charadrius semipalmatus      

AUSTRALIAN                       800

Vagrant to coastal Australia from the Americas. First recorded in 2010; one has been sighted annually in Broome for a number of years.

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. 

 

HIMALAYAN BUZZARD

 

1310                 HIMALAYAN BUZZARD                    Buteo burmanicus

NEPAL.             150

Fairly common winter visitor or passage migrant; some may over-winter. Mountain or open country. Rather sluggish, pounces on prey by dropping from vantage point or soaring over open country.