Category: wildlife

Victoria’s Riflebirds

September 16, 2018October 17, 2019 Christina

Victoria’s Riflebird (Ptiloris victoriae) is one of 3 species of birds of paradise (family Paradisaeidae) in Australia.

They are common in our part of the world, and relatively easy to observe on our property. They often investigate rough-barked tree trunks for insects and spiders, behaving like treecreepers. They also check out strips of hanging bark on Rose Gums.

The males use the tops of dead tree trunks, or sometimes horizontal branches, to perform their courtship dances, mainly between July and December.

Knowing their preferences, we levelled the top of a splintered dead trunk near the cabin, and it worked much faster than anticipated! Within a couple of days, a juvenile and an adult bird took turns on the new perch.

Looking impressive, but not a patch on the adult version:

It takes 4-5 years until a young male develops his velvety black adult plumage with iridescent metallic cap, throat and tail. Until then he looks very similar to the female birds.

Still wearing his immature outfit doesn’t stop him from displaying, though. It takes years of practice to get the moves right and entice a female!

The adult male watched for a while and then flew in to give a more refined performance. He even dazzled the camera, which quickly lost its focus!

Well, the difficulty of focussing might be related to the fact, that the riflebird’s black is the blackest black in nature. It absorbs 99.95% of light, so that even our eyes can’t focus on it properly. A possible reason for being so black might be that the contrast with his brightly coloured feathers makes those look even brighter, and, presumably, more attractive to the female. (You can read more on that topic in the June 2018 Australian Birdlife magazine).

These two males displayed without a female being present. Practising and showing off to each other!

New Tree-kangaroo Baby

June 18, 2018October 17, 2019 Christina

Winter in Wondecla: reptiles and insects are making themselves scarce. Leaf-tailed Geckos are hiding in hollows,

this Carpet Python is seeking out warm rocks.

There are still a few stick-insects around, like this Maclaey’s Sceptre.

Crested Shrike-tits are calling often, and are checking lose strips of bark for spiders and ants (as do Victoria’s Riflebirds). Several smaller species of birds are also patrolling the tree trunks, not just the White-throated Tree-creepers, but Pied Monarch Flycatchers and even Mountain Thornbills.

The platypus in our creek is active even in the middle of the day, sometimes travelling surprisingly nimbly and fast overland to avoid obstacles in the water.

One of our Northern Brown Bandicoots, a nocturnal species, is often out and about in the afternoons.

The Rose Gums are still flowering, so there is a cacophony of Scaly-breasted and Rainbow Lorikeets in the canopy, especially in the mornings.

Creek Satinash (Syzygium smithii) are fruiting heavily, attracting flocks of Satin Bowerbirds and King Parrots,

which are being often scattered by a juvenile Collared Sparrowhawk, honing its hunting skills (still a lot of honing to do!)

Amongst the Sparrowhawk’s distinguishing features is the elongated middle toe (longer than in the similar Brown Goshawk).

A big surprise was this female Tree-kangaroo, who was spotted a few days ago by our guests near the cabin. What looked like a black foot was, on closer inspection, the head of a very small joey sticking out of the pouch!(photo taken by Stacey Rod)

It looks like this might be a different female than the one we saw a couple of months ago with a large daughter by her side (see our March blog).

Another proud mum is this Red-legged Pademelon:

Juvenile Cassowary visiting

March 22, 2018October 17, 2019 Christina

Just before dark yesterday, we had an unexpected visitor: a juvenile cassowary emerged from the the forest, near our veranda. It has probably walked along the creek in search of fallen fruits, mushrooms and, if it is lucky, the occasional frog.

It is about 2/3 adult size, with clearly visible brown juvenile feathers on the thighs and tail, a bright blue neck and short, pink wattles, making it 1-2 years old.

Wattles and casque still have a lot of growing to do.

It might be a young male, as the tail feathers seem longer than on a female. (P.S.: it is a male, as we found out in June 2019, when he mated with a large female.)

The colouration along the neck is already quite vivid.

He was back this morning, pecking at some mushrooms, before wandering down to the creek and into the forest.

Tree-kangaroo mum and baby

March 5, 2018October 17, 2019 Christina

The large Acacia tree between cabin and creek seems to be a favourite for our Lumholtz’s Tree-kangaroos. They were back in that tree 2 weeks ago, eating and resting for a few hours in the morning, before descending and seeking more shade for the hotter part of the day in a smaller Symplocos tree nearby.

They are difficult to photograph in bright sunshine (at least with my little compact camera), one can hardly see their eyes in their dark faces.

They were very relaxed:

and more relaxed:

You hope they don’t fall off their perch!

Here are a couple of short videos:

Regent Skippers

March 1, 2018October 17, 2019 Christina

Regent Skippers (Euschemon rafflesia) are the largest of the Australian skippers, and beautifully coloured, especially our tropical subspecies E.rafflesia alba. The first butterflies appear in late September, and it seems they complete 3 generations before they make themselves scarce towards the end of March.

They are very unusual in having a feature, which normally is an important difference between butterflies and moths: males have a spine on the hindwing (a frenulum), which couples it with a loop under the forewing.

They are easy to observe, as they often settle on shrubs for a while. This one even sat on my hand for a while!The food plant for their caterpillars (Wilkiea pubescens, a tall shrub) grows in abundance on our property. Wilkiea fruits are very popular with many birds, like Superb Fruit-doves, and we’ve even watched a tree-kangaroo eat mouthfuls of the unripe berries.