Birds seen and heard this morning at Andrew Drynan Reserve
This morning before breakfast I conducted one of my regular birding walks around Andrew Drynan Reserve (just around the corner from the Araucaria property, and the site we usually use for our camping guests). I wanted to do this before school holidays started, and as had I hoped, the reserve was free from campers this morning.
The Pacific Baza used to be called a crested hawk.
Highlights for the morning included:
- a Pacific baza being mobbed by a couple of very vocal spangled drongos
- the calls of rose-crowned fruitdove from the forest (hadn’t seen them here since last summer)
- the calls of a noisy pitta from the forest (only the second time in several months)
- three eastern rosellas foraging on the grass of the campground (often see pale-headed, not so often the eastern
The baza used to be known as the crested hawk, which more immediately decribed it to those unfamiliar with the word ‘baza’. The name change was to bring it into line with international naming, as there are other baza species in Asia, Africa and Madagascar. Unlike most hawks, they often forage amongst foliage, eating insects and small vertebrates.
Other birds seen or heard this morning included channel-billed cuckoo (very vocal!) masked lapwing, wonga pigeon, brush cuckoo, common koel, pheasant coucal, rainbow lorikeet, galah (flock of 15 in the camping area), laughing kookaburra, Lewin’s honeyeater (eating fruit of the introduced lantana), noisy miner, olive-backed oriole, figbird, eastern whipbird, eastern yellow robin, Australian magpie, pied currawong and Torresian crow
The campsite at Andrew Drynan Reserve, where our guests choosing the camping option stay on the 3-day wildlife overview tour