BIRD OF THE MONTH 2025

JANUARY: CHANNEL-BILLED CUCKOO

I'd never seen a Channel-billed Cuckoo in Victoria, my home state, before January 2025. And then I saw three! These extraordinary cuckoos used to belong further north, but global warming has driven them south, to visit us here in Victoria. To the best of my knowledge, they first appeared in this state last year, when they appeared at Berwick. I did not go to see them. This year they turned up at Wilson Reserve, which is just across the river from where I live, so I really felt obliged to attempt to find them. There was apparently more than one young bird, being fed by Little Ravens. There were reports of sightings every day and eventually I could stand it no longer. I thought I probably wouldn't see them, but I had to look. I drove to the Wilson Reserve carpark, and I could hear the birds before I got out of my car. I hurried to the sound, and there were not one, not two, but three Channel-billed Cuckoos! One young one was being fed by a Little Raven. The other two birds flew off before I'd had a good look, but my preliminary view led me to believe that they were both adults. I'm told that adult Channel-billed Cuckoos can actually return to inspect their offspring! I had a good look and took an extremely ordinary photo. A day or two later, I took Ken Haines to see them too. The birds were not so cooperative for him, remaining high in the canopy. Nevertheless, he managed the photo above. Other contenders for Bird of the Month in January were: Tawny Frogmouths (a pair in Willsmere Park with two fluffy yet fully grown chicks); Tahiti Petrels (very handsome birds, and we saw a lot of them on my Southport pelagic) and a cooperative Eastern Whipbird (which made a point of showing himself when I was birding in the Dandenong Ranges National Park in Fern Tree Gully).

FEBRUARY: TOPKNOT PIGEON February was a great month, and I had difficulty deciding on the Bird of the Month. The Salvin's Albatross at Eaglehawk Neck was a good contender, as were the Pectoral Sandpipers at Werribee and the Southern Emuwrens I saw on my Mallacoota trip. The Eastern Spinebill that visited my garden was also wonderful - a new bird for my house list. And about time too! After all, I planted the entire garden just for him, and this is the first time he's deigned to inspect it. In the end, I decided on the Topknot Pigeon I saw at Cabbage Tree Creek, another new bird for me for Victoria. I took this picture from the Australian Bird Guide (ABG).

MARCH: FORK-TAILED SWIFT I am so pleased that we are once again permitted to talk about Fort-tailed Swifts - a much better name than Pacific Swift. Whatever you call them, I don't often see these birds. So it's always a thrill when I do. They arrive unpredictably, unexpectedly. You can't go to a specific spot to admire them. They'll be there when they decide and not otherwise. So always a special sighting and worthy of being the March Bird of the Month. This illustration is also from the ABG. Other birds in contention for March were an Australian Magpie and a Black-tailed Nativehen. The Australian Magpie was right outside my house, mimicking power tools! We have a couple of building sites in the street at the moment and no doubt he's been as irritated by the power tools as I have. The Black-tailed Nativehen (a bird I don't often see) was at Werribee. But he didn't run away and hide as usual. He wandered around on the beach right out in the open, evidently quite oblivious to the many birders admiring him. Or perhaps he was enjoying it, who knows?

APRIL: BULWER'S PETREL In April, I was delighted to see a Spotless Crake at Royal Park, the first crake I've ever seen there. I was also particularly pleased with both a glorious Azure Kingfisher and several Helmeted Honeyeaters at Yellingbo. My only interstate trip for the month was to Southport, following my so far futile attempts to see a New Caledonian Storm Petrel. On this trip, I saw a Torresian Kingfisher on Wynnum boardwalk, and an Osprey at Southport. All of these birds were contenders for my bird of the month. However, the winner was a Bulwer's Petrel on the Southport pelagic, a bird well outside his recognized normal range. This photo was taken by Patrick Reed. Thank you, Patrick!

MAY: RUFOUS BRISTLEBIRD May was a lovely month, with plenty of beautiful autumn sunshine, but, unfortunately, few birding trips for me. I did see Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos several times on my morning walks, and each time I had a satisfying warm glow for several hours thereafter. I did go to Werribee and derived pleasure from both Flame Robins and Banded Lapwings. I also had an unsuccessful trip to Geelong, in search of a Lewin's Rail. I should clarify that the trip was unsuccessful only on this one count. Otherwise I had a great day with some great sightings. For instance, I had great views of a Chestnut-rumped Heathwren, not always an easy bird to see. I had a lovely look at an Eastern Spinebill - a bird I'd failed to see on at least two occasions when I visited the Maranoa Gardens just for that purpose. I also enjoyed about twenty Double-banded Plovers (that I'd missed at Werribee) on the beach at Point Impossible, together with a pair of Hooded Plovers. But my bird of the day, and now my bird of the month, was a Rufous Bristlebird at Addis Point. There were actually two birds, happily going about their business, ignoring my presence and giving me great pleasure. This photo is actually from my archive and was taken by Ken Haines.

JUNE: WHITE-WINGED FAIRYWREN June's highlight was my trip to Dirk Hartog Island to see the black and white race of the White-winged Fairywren. It proved worth the effort. This spectacular normally blue and white bird is actually black and white on Dirk Hartog Island. Or so I thought, going by the illustrations in most field guides. I was surprised to see that in real life the male bird has a blue tail. I saw several other beautiful birds on that trip. In other circumstances, any one of them would be awarded Bird of the Month. Birds such as the White-breasted Whistler (one of our most under-rated birds in my opinion), or the very pretty Copperback Quail-thrush which initially played hard-to-get, then decided to show off his true beauty, or the Black-tailed Treecreepers amusing themselves along the dry bed of the Gasgoyne River or one charming little Redthroat that sat at eye level and serenaded me for several melodious minutes. A couple of other birds put in an appearance before the trip to Dirk Hartog. At home,some Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos gave me great pleasure on my walk one morning. They sat in a eucalypt busily ignorning me as if this were their normal routine. And I'm always a sucker for a frogmouth. I was delighted to see one bird returned to his rightful perch at Willsmere this month. He could very easily have been declared the Bird of the Month.

JULY: COPPERBACK QUAIL-THRUSH In July I visited the Red Centre and re-acquainted myself with some lovely arid country birds. It is hard to go passed a Dusky Grasswren. Or a Spinifex Pigeon. Or, indeed, a Painted Finch. And we saw lots of gorgeous green budgies. (Whoever thinks a blue budgie is a good creation is probably a climate change denier who endorses Donald Trump). There were also lots of Crimson Chats, Hooded and Red-capped Robins. All of these birds are worthy candidates to be Bird of the Month. However, the quail-thrush was noteworthy because he was so far out of his range. We'd been hearing the call and thought it was Cinnamon Quail-thrush, which should be inhabiting this area, but then he finally revealed himself. We had difficulty believing it was in fact a Copperback Quail-thrush who had no right to be there. Sadly, I was not able to get hold of a photo of the bird, so I took this from the ABG again.

AUGUST: RED-TAILED BLACK COCKATOO Under the current Avilist taxonomy, there are five subspecies of Red-tailed Black Cockatoo. Now I'll happily claim to have seen four of them. In truth, I reckon I've seen all five, but I can't tell you precisely where and when I saw the rarest one, graptogyne, so I'm planning to see it again. My memory is that I saw it in the 1960s when my parents took me to the Little Desert to see my first Malleefowl. It occurs in very small numbers along the Victorian/South Australian border and I'm planning to add it to my list unambiguously later. This year, in August, I added the race samueli. After quite a bit of searching: first in Western Australia in June, then in the Northern Territory in July, and finally, successfully in New South Wales in August. With such a wide distribution, you'd think it wouldn't be so hard to see one. But at last I did see it, in Wilcannia in August. And what a great deal of pleasure it gave me! We drove to Wilcannia, and, as soon as we crossed the bridge over the Darling, we heard black cockies. Right on cue! Imagine my delight, after my failed attempts in WA and the NT. Here they were easily in New South Wales, much closer to home. There were three birds, and we chased them up and down the river, then around the town a bit, just to admire their beauty. And great beauty it was too!

SEPTEMBER: RED-BILLED TROPICBIRD (Photo by Andy Robinson) In September I twitched the Red-billed Tropicbird on Christmas Island, thus having to abandon planned trips to Chiltern and a pelagic out of Eaglehawk Neck. Naturally, when I see a lifer, that has to be the bird of the month. There was absolutely no competition. I arrived on Christmas Island on Friday (and I couldn't have done that without Richard Baxter's help, thank you Richard!) and saw the bird on Saturday morning. I had to wait a week for my flight home, and, despite looking, I did not see the bird again. I count myself lucky to have seen it at all. There were a handful of sightings during that week, but I couldn't discern any pattern to the bird's behaviour. Anyway, it was a beautiful bird. Well worth the trip to Christmas Island (but not the angst!) Later in the month, I saw a pair of Channel-billed Cuckoos in Studley Park, Kew. Chances are it's the same pair I saw in January. I'm not used to seeing them in Victoria, and any other month they'd be top contenders for Bird of the Month. However, nothing can compete with a lifer! The other outstanding contender in September was the race ocellata of the Australian Boobook, which I was delighted to see. I'd have been delighted to see it anywhere, but I saw it outside its official range, after several unsuccessful attempts looking where it's supposed to be. That gave the sighting added excitement. But, I repeat, nothing can compete with a lifer!

OCTOBER: REGENT PARROT I started October at Ned's Corner, where I saw many wonderful birds (even after September's special Boobook) all worthy candidates for Bird of the Month: Malleefowl, Black Falcon, Regent Parrot, Chestnut Quail-thrush, Mallee Emu-wren, Striated Grasswren, Inland Dotterel. How's a girl to choose? Then, at Yellingbo, I saw a beautiful Grey Goshawk, a bird I don't often have the opportunity to admire. At the very end of the month, I did a pelagic out of Eaglehawk Neck, hoping for a rarity, but expecting to see nothing out of the ordinary, and, sad to say, my expectations were met. I'd decided before I left for Tasmania, that my bird of the month for October would be the Regent Parrot. We'd seen good numbers of them. Garnett reckons there are 2,500 of them and they are classified as Vulnerable. They gave me a thrill. That's enough! So a Regent Parrot it is! I took this photo some years ago, so it's not as good as recent photos taken by others!

NOVEMBER: MOREPORK In November, I visited Norfolk Island and achieved one lifer, the Morepork. I also visited Cocos Island. The Morepork was very beautiful and well worthy to be crowned Bird of the Month, especially as the total population is estimated to be 25 individuals. And, there was absolutely nothing noteworthy on Cocos this year.

DECEMBER: JAVA SPARROW Finding a Bird of the Month for December was difficult, because I started the month on Christmas Island, where I saw no vagrants at all. I must have picked up some bug on the plane home, because I was ill for the rest of the month, so I did no local birding at all. I decided on a Java Sparrow, one of the few Christmas Island birds that I had not seen on my September trip, so I'd made a concerted effort to see it in December. As its name implies, Java Sparrows are native to Indonesia. They were introduced to Christmas Island in the early years of last century. We see them in people's backyards, where they fly into the chicken coops to feed on the chook feed. They are not as common as they used to be. Again, I took this picture from the ABG.