Category: birds

Cassowary Relationships

Christina

Recently a new female cassowary moved in, and she seems to have filled the vacancy left by “Missy”.

Socks May2016

Her wattles have a distinctive shape, and we decided to call her “Socks”.

Socks
She still has a few brown tail feathers, but is already bigger than the resident male, “Dad”. Our guess is, that she is about 3-4 years old, and this might well be her first mating season.
He is definitely interested in her: initially, he frequently made soft contact calls (similar to a chimpanzee’s or gorilla’s grunting), while standing several meters away from her. She pretended not to be interested, having her back turned to him. As soon as she started to slowly approach him, he got scared and took off like a chased Brush Turkey, protesting loudly.

You can identify the male by his longer tail feathers. ‘Dad’s’ casque tilts to the right, whereas ‘Sock’s’ is straight and unblemished. You can also make out a dash of brown on her backside.

In this short movie, the female is strutting towards the male, who can be seen in the background:

(Unfortunately, my camera does not pick up his vocalizations well,the frequency is very low, just audible to humans.)

Nevertheless, he can’t stay away from her, and the whole scenario kept happening again and again. For a while, you had to be careful in the garden, as Dad might come crashing through the forest or across the lawn at high speed!
Now, after several weeks of travelling together (but at a safe distance from each other), she readily follows him, but he still gets spooked when she gets too close.

Here, she is feeding, and Dad is making his way past her , before they walk away together:

Probably hormone levels have to rise for mating behaviour to start.
Hopefully, we’ll have a new generation of cassowaries visiting later in the year!

Victoria’s Riflebirds and Cassowaries

Christina

Exciting news about two of our iconic species:

Mr Cassowary (“Dad”) has returned with a new chick (he had two this year, but the other one succumbed to a leg injury).

Dad and chick 2014

The little one is already quite adventurous, running across the rocks around our pond, under Dad’s watchful eye:

chick 2014

A large tree was snapped off during the cyclone in April , and we decided to cut off the splintered top of the stump, in the hope that the smoother surface might entice a Victoria’s Riflebird (Ptiloris victoriae) to use it as a dance floor for his courtship display.

Last week a young riflebird (he is still wearing his juvenile plumage, having not yet changed into the splendid black and metallic turquoise adult colours ) rewarded our efforts:

Victoria's Riflebird

Not a very pleasant voice, but he certainly knows how to move (and then he became annoyed by a piece of bark…):

 

 

This Tree Monitor (Varanus scalaris) inspected the tree stump in the afternoon:

Spotted Tree Monitor

Another legacy of the cyclone are a lot of broken branches and tree trunks, which we gathered in a large pile in the forest at our garden’s edge. It now houses a couple of Red-necked Crakes (Rallina tricolor), who emerge regularly to forage for insects and worms.

Red-necked Crake

They like banana, too, as does this Major Skink (Egernia frerei), (this one is about 30cm long):

Major Skink

Many birds are starting to mate and build nests, Pacific Bazas (Aviceda subcristata) and Wompoo Fruit-doves (Ptilinopus magnificus) are especially vocal.

It has been very dry , but as Dad has only one chick to raise this year, finding enough food should not be a problem.

New Cassowary Chicks, December 2012

Christina

“Our” cassowary made an appearance, with his 3 two-month-old chicks, one week ago.
The chicks are inquisitive, yet still keep very close to dad.
They all look very healthy and well fed. Quite a few trees are fruiting; several species of figs and laurels, Black Palms (Normanbya normanbyi) and Kuranda Quandongs (Elaeocarpus bancroftii)- the latter two might still be a bit too  large for the chicks to swallow.
Unfortunately,”our” cassowary’s core territory , he had his nest there,  is under threat:
the 28 ha rainforest property between us and Kuranda National Park has been advertised for sale.
Without interest and support from governments we are trying to raise funds to purchase and conserve said property in perpetuity.cassowaries December 2012cassowaries December 2012.2cassowaries December 2012.3

new cassowary chicks

Finches and Termites, October 2012

Christina

After 12 weeks of mostly dry weather we finally had some welcome rain last night and today (25mm), which led to an interesting observation:

Red-browed finches (Neochmia  temporalis)  and chestnut-breasted mannikins (Lonchura castaneothorax) were hopping around in our driveway, picking up termite alates (winged termites), which had just swarmed from their mound, and even catching them in mid-air.

It was surprising to see such typical seed-eaters gorging themselves on insects – and performing some very acrobatic manoeuvres.

Maybe the female finches are stocking up on protein for the production of eggs.

We normally do not have finches on our rainforest property- the grassy areas are rather small. A few pairs of red-browed finches usually arrive in November to build nests, mainly in the palm trees, but then leave at the end of the wet season.

This year, two pairs decided to stay (possibly because we left a few patches of lawn to go to seed), and we put out some bird seed for them. This must have stopped a small flock of chestnut-breasted mannikins in their tracks (we never had them here before) – and they told their friends! We now have a flock of over 100 (they are really difficult to count, being very flighty).

red-browed  finch

one chestnut-breasted mannikin

many chestnut-breasted mannikins

CASSOWARY UPDATE

We are eagerly awaiting dad’s return after he disappeared  more than 2 months ago.

He never brooded the clutch of 8 eggs he had in early July and abandoned that nest.

Hopefully, the female produced another batch for him.

She is still visiting every 5 to 15 days, looking a bit worse for wear, having lost the rich gloss of her plumage and rather threadbare thighs ( the male scratches her thighs with his claws, when she is sitting down, and he tries to get into mating position). So, presumably, she has been mating with another male.

Mating Cassowaries, May 2012

Christina

This morning we had the privilege to observe cassowaries mating.

First the female sits down, then the male behind her, shuffling closer and closer.

It looks rather clumsy and it is impossible to tell whether he was successful, too many long feathers obscuring the view…

Male cassowaries, as the other ratites, have a pseudo-penis, which may make mating easier.

The adult birds were very relaxed, they did not even mind one of the chicks stepping over the female’s neck while she was sitting down for mating!

We watched the same pair mating in almost the same spot two years ago; maybe the female prefers the soft grass to a prickly forest floor and enjoys the ” privacy” of a Heliconia leaf over her head.

We didn’t expect the cassowaries to be in mating mood as yet, he usually looks after the chicks a bit longer.

What triggers the mating behaviour?

It has been a very good season with plenty of food and he only had to share it with 2 chicks, having lost the other 3 very early after hatching. He also recovered very well from a deep wound to his left heel. He does not look as exhausted and appears to be in better condition than in previous years.

I am writing this blog on our front veranda, while cassowary dad and the 2 chicks are strolling past, what a fantastic place to be!