Tag:birds of prey
The Little Eagle is one of the smallest species of Eagle found worldwide. They are a small to medium-sized, stocky yet powerful birds native to Australia. Due to their size and colouring, they are often confused with the Whistling Kite.
Little eagles have short, broad heads with moderately long tails, square-cut at the tip when closed. They have two ‘phases’ in their colouring – a light and a dark phase. During the light phase, when in flight, they are often mistaken for the Whistling Kite. They have heavily feathered legs, and when perched, they have a short crest. The plumage varies from light to dark brown, with a pale broken ‘M’ on the upper parts, easily visible from a distance. The underside of the wing also has a pale M-shaped band. The broad wings have a span of one metre with dark tips.
Flight
The Little Eagle has a distinctive flight pattern of soaring in tight circles with flat wings. They advertise their territory by a soaring, undulating flight display and conspicuous perching and calling.
Habitat and Distribution
The habitat of the Little Eagle is dry eucalypt, sheoak or acacia woodlands, forests and open country. They tend to avoid rainforests and the densely forested area of the Great Dividing Range. Their distribution is widespread across mainland Australia and central and eastern New Guinea.
Diet
The Little Eagle is a raptor (bird of prey) and, as such, is a carnivore. They hunt for their prey on the wing or from a high, exposed perch, taking their prey on the ground or in the tree canopy. Their prey includes rabbits, other live mammals and insects and occasionally carrion. The Little Eagle originally ate a diet of small birds, mammals, and reptiles, sometimes supplementing with insects; however, their diet changed with the introduction of foxes and rabbits. As rabbits quickly became abundant across Australia, and they found them an ideal prey source, becoming their primary diet. However, the release of the Calicivirus in 1996 caused a sharp 65% to 85% decrease in the rabbit population. At the same time, the foxes were taking their traditional prey of mammals and reptiles. With rabbits now less abundant, they also have to compete against foxes for their traditional prey.
Breeding
Little Eagles breed annually. They make their nest in mature living trees in open woodland or alongside rivers and will rarely nest in isolated trees. Instead, they create a nest in an open bowl shape constructed of twigs and branches lined with leaves. The pair will build the nests in winter, and the female lays two to three eggs in spring. The female incubates eggs for the 37-day incubation period and then feeds the hatchlings while the male hunts for food. The male, however, will hatch the chicks while the female eats the food he has brought her. The chicks will fledge in summer.
In 2009 only three breeding pairs were recorded in the ACT. However, in the 2017-2018 breeding season, a minimum of nine nesting pairs of Little Eagles were confirmed in the ACT, with four more breeding pairs just over the border in NSW. Of those eight pairs, just one chick was raised. A Currawong destroyed one nest, another breeding pair lost their egg in a storm, and the other pairs either lost eggs to unknown means or did not lay.
Threats
The main threats to the species are secondary poisoning from rabbit baiting, plus fragmentation and degradation of its habitat. The habitat loss also causes the little Eagle to compete with the larger, more dominant Wedge-tail Eagle. Once common in the ACT, they have significantly declined by over 70% in the last 20 years.
Status
They are listed on the IUCN Red List as of least concern. The conservation status of the Little Eagle is secure in NT, Qld, SA, Vic and WA. However, it is considered vulnerable throughout NSW, with only a single population. The Little Eagle is not present in Tasmania. In NSW, the Environment Dept. has added the Little Eagle to the ‘Save our species‘ program. Among other measures, they plan to raise land managers’ awareness of the risks of secondary poisoning from using Pindone or second-generation rodenticides. Instead, they encourage alternative poisons and control techniques such as warren ripping.
The Wedge-tail Eagle, known colloquially as a ‘wedgie’, is the largest Australian raptor (bird of prey), standing at a metre tall. A truly magnificent bird, the Wedge-tail Eagle has an average wingspan of 2.3 metres though it can be up to 2.8 metres. They are Australia’s biggest bird of prey and one of the biggest eagles in the world and are similar in size to the American Bald Eagle. The Wedge-tail Eagle has a pale pink to cream beak, dark brown eyes, off-white feet and a wedge-shaped tail. They have a lifespan of 20 to 40 years. Males are 3.2 to 4 kg, while females are a slightly paler colour, larger and heavier at 4.2 to 5kg. Both sexes become progressively darker for the first ten years of their life.
Habitat & Distribution
The Wedge-tailed Eagle prefers wooded, forested land and open county. However, they can also be found in the mountains, near the sea, soaring in the air, or high in trees surveying their territory. The Wedge-tail is located in mainland Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea. However, the Tasmanian Wedge-tail eagle is a distinct sub-species with genetic testing revealing the two species separated 200 to 1000 years ago. The Tasmanian population was established by mainland individuals flying across Bass Strait. Tasmanian Wedge-tails are darker in colour, have larger bodies and produce only one egg per clutch.
Diet
The Wedge-tails’ primary food source is carrion, preying on ground-dwelling animals and attacking with a fast swooping motion. Their diet consists of rabbits, mammals, lizards, possums, foxes, feral cats and carrion, and the eggs of other birds. They can carry prey up to 5kg in weight in their talons.
Eyesight
The Wedge-tail has binocular vision in which they can see their prey from great distances and in 8 times more detail than humans. In addition, their uniquely adapted eyes allow them to squeeze and extend their eyeball, enabling them to use their eyes similar to the zoom lens on a camera. Eagles have a third eyelid called the nictitating membrane. This eyelid is translucent and sweeps quickly across the eye from the inside corner. The eagle will sweep the nictitating membrane across the eye every few seconds to moisten and lubricate it. While it’s not completely clear, it still allows them to see.
Breeding
The breeding season occurs from June to October. They are monogamous, mating for life. Both the male and female groom each other during the breeding season. They build the nest together from sticks and leaves in the tallest tree in their area. The nest measures up to two metres wide and three metres deep. They often reuse the same nest year after year. A breeding pair usually only lays one clutch of eggs a year.
The female Wedge-tail lays a clutch of between 1 to 3 eggs over several days. Because of this, the eggs also hatch at different times. The female primarily incubates the eggs, while the male lines the nest daily with fresh leaves. The eggs hatch after 45 days, and chicks emerge covered in white downy feathers. The first chick that hatches is always the largest and sometimes kills the other chicks. The chicks are dependent on their parents for food for the first five weeks. The young Wedge-tail eagle leaves the nest after 12 weeks. However, they are not fully mature for six to eight years.
Threats
Wedge-tail Eagles are very common in Victoria. Sadly, farmers once considered them a menace. Convinced that the eagles carried off lambs, thousands of eagles were shot or poisoned. Subsequent research has found this false, as they rarely attack healthy lambs and never full-grown sheep. Current threats to Wedge-tails are loss of habitat due to clearing land and secondary poisoning from eating animals that have died from pesticides and baits. Road vehicle accidents also account for many deaths, with cars hitting the eagles while they are on the road eating roadkill. Additionally, wind farms also have an impact on their numbers.
Status
Wedge-tail eagles are protected in Victoria. Their status in Victoria is ‘secure’, and fines of up to $8000 apply to anyone found “killing, harassing or disturbing” the eagles.
The Australian Laughing Kookaburra is a giant kingfisher synonymous with Australia. Their distinctive call sounds like a fiendishly laughing human and establishes their territory. Their call can be heard early morning and late afternoon. While kookaburras belong to the kingfisher group, they are not closely associated with water and rarely eat fish. However, they have been known to take goldfish from garden ponds.
Iconic Status
The Australian Kookaburra is iconic with Australian culture. For example, Olly the Kookaburra was one of the three mascots of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Furthermore, a famous Australian nursery rhyme by Marion Sinclair immortalised the Kookaburra for generations of children. It is also the brand name of Kookaburra Sport, founded in 1890 and named after the original owner’s pet bird. They still produce equipment for cricket, football and hockey leagues, and the most widely used ball used in one-day internationals and test cricket.
Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,
Merry merry king of the bush is he.
Laugh, Kookaburra, Laugh, Kookaburra
Gay your life must be
Except of Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree a nursery rhyme written by Marion Sinclair in 1934
kookaburra species
There are four species of Kookaburra. The Laughing Kookaburra is native to Australia and lives in Eucalyptus woodland and open forests all along the East Coast of Australia. In contrast, the Blue-winged Kookaburra lives in tropical and subtropical woodlands, swamps, watercourses, canefields and farmlands. They are native to Northern Australia and Southern New Guinea. Finally, the Spangled Kookaburra is native to the Aru Islands of Southern New Guinea, and the Rufous-bellied Kookaburra is native to lowland New Guinea.
SIZE AND APPEARANCE
The Laughing Kookaburra is 47cm tall and weighs around 465 grams. Head and chest are off white with dark brown on the back and wings. They have a light blue tinge on the wingtips and a conspicuous eye stripe of dark brown on the face. Their tail is broadly barred with black. They have a brown eye and large beak, dark on top and a pale underside. Their name comes from their iconic laughing call.
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Blue Winged Kookaburra is slightly smaller than the laughing Kookaburra at 42 cm high and weighs around 310 grams. They also lack a large brown eye stripe. Instead, they have a blue tail, with a large amount of bright blue on the wing. Their back is brown, and they have white eyes. Like the laughing Kookaburra, their large beak is dark on top and has a pale underside. However, their call is more similar to maniacal barking.
kOOKABURRA CALL AS SOUND EFFECTS
The iconic call of the Australian Laughing Kookaburra has appeared as a sound effect in many movies. This is regardless of where it’s set, considering kookaburras are only found in Australia and New Guinea. However, filmmakers seem to like including their laughing call to give the impression of an impenetrable jungle. The following are just a few movies that have all used its call.
- Tarzan, set in African Jungle
- The Treasure of Sierra Madre, set in a Mexican forest
- Raiders of the Lost Ark – in the Amazonian rainforest
- Lost World Jurassic Park – on a fictional island supposedly west of Costa Rica
- Swiss Family Robinson – on a deserted tropical island in the East Indies
- Romancing the Stone – a Colombian jungle
- Aquaman – in the hiddlen jungles at the earths core
- Listen to Laughing Kookaburra
- Listen to Blue Wing Kookaburra
Behaviour
Unlike many other kingfishers, they rarely eat fish and are closer to birds of prey. They are almost exclusively carnivorous, eating a diet of mice, snakes, insects, small reptiles and young birds. Kookaburras are social birds, accept handouts, and have been known to steal meat from BBQ. They also rarely drink water as they receive most of their moisture from the blood of their prey. Sitting in silence on a tree branch, they watch their prey before swooping down and catching it in their beak. They drop the snakes from great heights or bash them against a tree trunk or rock to kill and soften their prey before devouring them.
Breeding
Kookaburras live in groups and mate for life. The older offspring help the parents care for the new chicks. The breeding season runs from September to January. They build their nests in hollow tree trunks or excavated termite mounds. Their nests are bare chambers, usually no more than 12 metres from the ground. A female will lay 1-4 round white eggs. Both parents share in the 25-day incubation process. Once hatched, the entire family will help feed and protect the young hatchlings.
The chicks are born blind and featherless. However, they are still highly aggressive. The young chicks are born with a temporary hooked beak, and the first chicks to hatch have the advantage. The chicks use their hooked beak to fight the last chicks to hatch. The first two hatchlings will often peck the remaining chicks to death, thus ensuring more food for themselves. When the chicks mature, they stay with the adults, remaining part of the group and assisting the parents in defending the territory and raising future chicks.
Artificial Introduction Elsewhere
The Kookaburra was introduced to Western Australia in 1897 to control snake numbers. While the introduction was successful, Kookaburra’s now posing a significant threat to native lizard species. They also take up vital nesting hollows used by the endangered black cockatoos, impacting the black cockatoos’ ability to breed successfully.
The O’Reilly’s, were in the right place, at the right time, during a few pivotal moments in their lives and Australia’s history, including the loss of the Stinson. Setting up a dairy farm four years before the land around him was declared a National Park and then later a World Heritage-listed area ensured they had the Green Mountains virtually to themselves. In 1937 a Stinson aircraft with seven people on board disappeared en route from Brisbane to Sydney. A massive search for the plane was launched, but based on conflicting eye-witness accounts, the search area was 800kms south in the Hawkesbury region. Days later, the search was abandoned.
“The rescue of survivors of the Stinson plane crash 80 years ago was an iconic moment in Australian history, but the man behind the feat never felt he was a hero”
Damien Larkins, ABC News.
The Loss of the Stinson
Bernard O’Reilly believed he had seen the plane fly over his brother’s nearby farm. However, he was convinced it hadn’t crossed the border into NSW, so he searched on his own. Making his trail through dense rainforest and up the steep terrain of the McPherson Range, relying solely on his bushman skills, he found the wreck two days after he set off and 8.4kms from the O’Reilly property. The Stinson pilots and two passengers had died. Another survivor died going for help, leaving just two. Of the two remaining survivors, one had a broken leg. The other was severely burnt from the fire that engulfed the plane when it crashed.
The Rescue
Bernard boiled the men a billy tea and gave them food before heading back down the mountain at night. He waded through creeks and hacked his way back down the mountain through the dense rainforest. Thirteen hours later, he reached a farm where he was given a horse for the rest of the journey. Arriving back, he organised a rescue party and doctor. Then led them back to the crash site and helped bring the survivors down on stretchers. Talk about a feat of endurance!
A movie called ‘Riddle of the Stinson’ was made of the rescue starring Jack Thompson playing Bernard O’Reilly and the legend of the Stinson lives on with O’Reilly’s & The Stinson forever linked.
In the 1980s, the Australian Army removed much of the wreckage via helicopter. However, the skeletal remains of the aircraft are still there. This forms part of a hiking trail for very experienced and very fit bushwalkers.
Tree top walk
It was our last day at O’Reilly’s, so we headed off for the Tree Top Walk after breakfast. With Carole now on a walking stick instead of crutches. A series of nine suspension bridges soaring up to 30 metres off the forest floor. The walk is just across the road from reception and was the first of its kind in Australia. The boardwalk through the rainforest leads to a fig tree, the start of the bridges. It was drizzling, and the forest was shrouded in mist as we started. However, by the time we got back, the sun was shining.
We went for a massage and foot treatment at O’Reillys Lost World Day Spa in the afternoon- a fabulous treat.
Last night at O’Reilly’s
That evening, with Carole now off the crutches. We headed upstairs to the Rainforest Bar for our last happy hour and one and only sunset, followed by dinner and an early night. We were off down the mountain to Springbrook National Park and the Gold Coast the following day.
We were still at O’Reilly’s in Lamington National Park, and with Carole on crutches today, we did a more sedate 4WD trip this morning with Matt to Moonlight Crag and then to Luke’s Farm for damper and billy tea. Matt kept an interesting and informative dialogue as we passed certain spots, including stopping for us to shoot a massive Coastal Carpet Python.
Moonlight Crag
We stopped at Moonlight Crag, but there was so much low cloud that we couldn’t see anything—we were completely socked in. The view over Lamington National Park is great when you can see it. Having no joy there, we continued to Luke’s Farm. This was lower down the mountain, so we were below the clouds. Now, the view was fabulous from here.
Matt made a fire and started boiling the billy. Morning tea was billy tea or coffee and damper with butter, delicious!
The Noisy Miners are well used to people calling in with damper, and they didn’t take long to turn up and start waiting for crumbs. With morning tea done, Matt drove us back to O’Reilly’s.
Birds of Prey Show
In the afternoon, the skies cleared, and the sun appeared. With Carole still on crutches, we headed over to the Birds of Prey show, parking as close as I could for her; she still had to hobble along a gravel path. The show was only about 30 minutes but quite good, with the bird handler very informative and full of humour.
Once a year, my sister and I take a week’s holiday together. No hubbies, no kids. Just sister time with our cameras. This year we chose the hinterlands of the Gold Coast, staying at O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat for four days before heading down via Springbrook National Park to Surfers Paradise for another four days. Finally, we flew out of Melbourne, arriving in Coolangatta 2 hours later… due to Qld not having daylight savings, the watches had to go back an hour, putting us at the rental desk to collect our hire car only 1.5hrs after leaving Melbourne.
“Four years after the arrival of the O’Reilly family in 1911 Lamington National Park was declared, effectively isolating the O’Reillys from the outside world. While Lamington wasn’t Queensland’s first national park it is the most significant, and was regularly referred to as ‘Queensland’s National Park”
https://oreillys.com.au/lamington-national-park/
A free upgrade saw us heading off in a lovely little Mitsubishi ASX instead of the Toyota Carolla. Not that it helped with luggage storage … we had two large suitcases and two rolling camera suitcases, and the big suitcases held more camera gear! Gone are the days of travelling light.
Canungra
The first stop was O’Reillys Vineyards, Canungra, where we enjoyed a delicious lunch before a wine tasting and bought some wines to take with us. There was apparently platypus breeding in the creek, but with the skies getting darker and a storm predicted and 34 kms of very, very winding road up the mountain ahead of us, we decided to push on. It was good that we did, as while Qld doesn’t believe it needs daylight, saying it would really help! Daylight is around 4.30 am every morning, but it’s dark by 6 pm.
Goat Track of a Road
Road crews were working on the road repairing damage from Cyclone Debbie. This made some sections narrower than they were already, and it was one lane all the way up. Not one lane each way… one lane in total! there were lots of little turnouts to pull over into, but a couple of times, we came around a blind corner with another car coming towards us…. a wine was definitely called for by the time we arrived. (we found out later the road was an old logging track they covered with bitumen!)
O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat is a village-like retreat high up the mountain in Lamington National Park, with a dining room, bar, cafe, discovery centre, church, mini-mart, gift shop, and accommodation options from self-contained through to guesthouse or camping.
Birds Galore
We had decided to stay in the mountain view rooms with a little back deck overlooking the mountains in the distance. It turned out to be an excellent choice as each morning and evening, we had such a myriad of birds in the trees around our room that we quickly bought some rice crackers at the mini-mart to attract them closer.
That night we strolled down to O’Reilly’s dining room… amazing food with massive portions…. not really overpriced for what you got, but geez.. our lamb share platter for two could have fed four; we did our best but still left half…. mind you we still made room for the pavlova even if we had to share that too 🙂
