Birds in Backyards e-Newsletter: February 2013

Greetings Backyard Birders and welcome to your first Birds in Backyards e-Newsletter for 2013! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years break and that everyone has stayed safe during all the terrible fires and floods. A big thank you to all of you who donated to our Christmas appeal. Your support is contributing to some new exciting things in the pipeline for 2013, including (amongst other things):

·      a national resource kit for BirdLife Australia branches all over the country to use to get BIBY out into their communities.

·      a 6 week BIBY schools package for year 5 and 6 students. 2013 will be a trial with a select number of schools.

·      Engaging Ethnic Communities project – this great project based in Sydney will involve training local council staff and others to talk about birds in a range of different communities.

·      many more great handouts and downloadable sheets for the website and of course some new videos developed with Focus Films and Angus Stewart.

·      a new survey portal – we are seeking funding for this extremely important project.

Powerful Owl Project

We are still getting sightings of these amazing birds from throughout their range (Southern Qld through to Victoria) and we are planning the 2013 Owl Observer season for Sydney at the moment. Don’t forget – if you see or hear a Powerful Owl to send the sighting to us via the survey page.

Sydney-siders – our Powerful Owl pellet workshop on the 23rd of Feb is now full, however due to an amazing response we will be running a repeat of this event in the second half of the year.

We also want to welcome Grant Lubyckij to the project. Grant is a 3^rd year Natural Sciences student from the University of Western Sydney. He is going to be working with us this year looking at the vegetation needs of urban Powerful Owls as a research component of his degree. We will shortly put some information up on the website about Grant and his research.

Photo: P Sparks

Student Research

BIBY continues to support some great students doing some amazing research around Australia. Remember the Common Myna and Nest Box surveys are still up online and the students are eager to get as much data as possible.

We have recently uploaded a new survey to the website targeting people who feed birds. Feeding birds in Australia is a very controversial practice – we can cause problems for birds when we feed them, but many Australians take great enjoyment from this practice. PhD student Renee Chapman from Griffith University is endeavoring to look closely at this tangled issue and is hoping that BIBY members who do feed birds can help her by taking 10 mins to complete this survey. BIBY is not suggesting that everyone goes out and starts feeding birds – we would always prefer that people create a bird-friendly garden, but for those who do take enjoyment from feeding, Renee is very interested in hearing from you. Go here: http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/Access-Feeding-survey to complete the survey.

 

Photo: G Cameron

Gardening Tips

When we talk about grass, we are usually talking about the lawn – but there are also a huge variety of native grasses out there that make a great bird-friendly addition to our gardens. Some can be used as a substitute for our traditional lawn whilst others grow in large clumps, providing food (seed-heads), nesting material (leaves can be woven into nests) and shelter for smaller birds (and other wildlife). Talk to your local council to get specific species native to your region but here are a few options to get you started:

• Kangaroo grass (Themeda australis/Themeda triandra): Probably one of the most widespread native grasses, found in every state and territory and in almost any habitat. It is a medium height (40 – 90cm) clumping grass with distinctive seed heads that are great for parrots and finches to feed on.  It doesn’t require a lot of water and can tolerate high temps but doesn’t particularly like frost.

• Tussock grass (Poa labillardieri): This grass is naturally found in southern and eastern Australia – basically from southern Qld, through coastal NSW and into Vic and Tas. Tussock grass prefers moister, well-drained soils and has soft, delicate leaves in grey or blue-green. It has a much more weeping habit than the Kangaroo grass. Whilst the grass itself only grows to about 40 cm, its fruit spikes (the bits the birds love) can grow to over 1 m.  It does grow in full sun but it prefers dappled shade so is perfect for planting under tall trees.
• Weeping grass (Microlaena stipoides): Naturally found in the southern states (Vic, Tas and the southern portions of WA and NSW), this grass is one of the best native grass lawn substitutes as it can tolerate being trampled and mowed and it also tolerates a range of soil types, drought and frost. If you are thinking about using for your lawn, let patches occasionally go to seed to provide food for birds.

Photo: D Broughton                                                                                                  

These are only 3 grasses, there are many many more out there. If you live in bushfire prone areas be sure to consider the potential fuel load in your garden and whether dried grasses could cause issues (Lomandra is another grass that is a low-flammable alternative).

And on the topic of gardening, a word of caution...

I am sure many of you try to limit the use of chemicals in your garden and one alternative to spraying to when you have a lot of flies and other flying insects around is to use sticky traps. BIBY however was recently contacted by a member who works at a nursery and wanted to warn you all about a scary experience they had using some large sticky traps.
When the traps were installed around the nursery they did a great job and attracted insects, but they also attracted a family of Superb Fairy-wrens who tried to feed on the trapped insects and instead got themselves stuck. Of course this was a very stressful event for the birds and for the staff. The birds were able to be removed and released but they did loose some feathers in the process (the manufactuer advises soaking the sheets in warm water to remove them). Avoid using traps such as this if you have small insect-eating birds around and if you do put them up, cut them into very thin strips and monitor them closely. A garden full of insects is a great place for many of our birds who would love to keep their numbers under control for you!

 

Feature Bird: the Rosellas

Rather than looking at just one species, I thought we would cover most of the country by featuring the rosellas, a relatively well known group of parrots. There are 6 species of rosellas (Northern, Pale-headed, Eastern, Western, Green and Crimson) although there are also a range of subspecies including 2 of the Crimson Rosella subspecies (Yellow and Adelaide) that are not actually crimson in colour!

Northern: pale lemon with a black cap. This species is found from the Kimberley through the top end of the Northern Territory.

Pale-headed: palest rosella species. The Pale-headed rosella is found right through the eastern side of Qld, and down into northern NSW.

Eastern: the bird on the Arnotts biscuit tins. As the name suggests, it is found throughout eastern Australia from Kingaroy in south-east Qld down to Tas. It was also introduced into the Mount Lofty Ranges in SA. 

 

Pale-headed Rosella. Photo: E Pierce

Western: The smallest of the rosellas, the Western rosella occurs only in the south-west corner of WA. They are red (females are more green), with yellow cheek patches      

Green: Found only in Tasmania, the Green rosella is yellow to greenish in colour with distinctive blue cheek

Crimson: Of course, the Crimon rosella is crimson red, though the young birds are an golden-olive colour. They are found in north-east Qld and through coastal NSW and Vic. They are the most common rosella species in the BIBY backyard surveys (seen in 12.5% of surveys).

Yellow: Actually a subspecies of the Crimson rosella, and it of course is yellow in colour with a red forehead and blue cheeks. Found only near rivers in southern NSW and northern Vic. We haven't had any records of Yellow rosellas in our backyard bird surveys yet.

Adelaide: This subspecies is a natural hybrid between a Crimson rosella and Yellow rosella – some are more red and others show more yellow. These birds only occur around the Mount Lofty Ranges and Adelaide Plains regions.

Table: The recording rate (% of surveys) in which each rosella species was seen in the Backyard Bird surveys

Species	Recording rate (% surveys seen)
Crimson	12.5%
Eastern	7.4%
Pale-headed	3.2%
Adelaide	0.8%
Green	0.1%
Western	0.06%

All the rosella species prefer similar habitats – open woodlands and forest with grassy areas, especially along water-courses. They also are seen along roadsides, in farmland and of course in our gardens. They feed largely on seeds like those of native grasses, Eucalypts and Banksias but also eat some insects and nectar from flowering plants. Think about including grasses, shrubs and trees (like wattles and hakeas) in your garden that produce lots of seeds for these birds.

Rosellas are also hollow-nesters but of course tree hollows are in short supply in our parks and gardens. Birds in Backyards has a series of nest box plans for most of the rosellas available here: http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/Nest-Box-Plans so think about building one and putting it in your garden this year for when the rosellas start breeding (beginning in August).

Type 'rosella' into the Bird Finder: http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/finder to read more about these birds.

Crimson Rosella - Photo: M Odey

Flaming Pines – BIBY fundraiser

Flaming Pines is an experimental music label who has been releasing some bird-themed pieces. ‘Birds of a Feather’ celebrates the role of birds in ambient music, and the beautiful fragility of birds more generally.

Flaming Pines are making a donation of $1 for every ‘Birds of a Feather’ CD that they sell to the Birds in Backyards Program. To check it out and perhaps make a purchase, go to http://flamingpines.com/Birds%20of%20a%20Feather2.htm

A huge thank you to Flaming Pines for their support.

 

We hope that in 2013 you all continue to enjoy your backyard birds and that we can help you create a great space for them. Keep up to date with the BIBY website by checking in regularly and following BirdLife Australia on facebook and twitter.

Happy birding

Holly