RED-BILLED TROPICBIRD

At midnight on Sunday, 31 August, 2025, Richard Baxter emailed me to say that Andrew Robinson had reported a Red-billed Tropicbird on Christmas Island. I couldn't sleep well that night and got up early to send someone an email. Thus I received Richard's email in the wee small hours of Monday 1 September. I was scheduled to go birding at Chiltern that week, and I had an Eaglehawk Neck pelagic booked for Sunday, 14 September. I'd been looking forward to both trips and had lists of birds I hoped to see. They were quite immaterial now. Now, all that mattered was getting to Christmas Island as quickly as possible. To the best of my knowledge, I've never before been on the same land mass at the same time as a Red-billed Tropicbird. The first time I ever heard of a Red-billed Tropicbird being in Australia was in 2010, when one turned up on Lord Howe Island. I was most impressed (not to say envious!) when Rohan Clarke hopped on a plane and twitched it. Somehow, the bird that turned up on Ashmore Reef in November 2014 passed me by.

Some years later, a bird turned up on Christmas Island, but I believe it had left by the time I arrived in November. For the last five or so years, a Red-billed Tropicbird has turned up on Christmas Island every year. It arrives around late August/early September, visits for about a month, then disappears. It never hangs around to greet me when I arrive in November. Last year, my patience ran out and I determined that if the bird turned up this year, I'd twitch it. So it was that on Friday, 5 September, 2025, I arrived on Christmas Island. Lisa Preston, who runs Indian Ocean Experiences, arranged accommodation for me and put me in touch with Andrew Robinson, the man who'd found the bird this year. I met Andy on Saturday morning. We drove to Tai Jin House, where he'd seen the bird, and sat down to wait. We didn't have many hours to fill. At 10.20, the bird appeared! Thank you, Andy! Andy took all the photos on this page. Thank you again, Andy. The bird put on a wonderful display for us, wheeling and calling in front of us for about 15 minutes. Then it disappeared. I remained on Christmas Island until my flight home the following Friday, but I did not see the bird again. I believe there were a handful of other sightings during the week, but not by me. I went to Tai Jin House several times and scanned Flying Fish Cove diligently, but I was not able to wish the bird back into existence. Andy first saw the bird at about 4 in the afternoon. Lisa saw it one morning at 11. Other people were lucky enough to add it to their lists. But I could not determine any pattern in its appearances. It seemed to me to be pot luck whether you saw it at all.

So, a big THANK YOU to Richard and Lisa and Andy. A successful twitch always leaves me feeling good, and, as the twitches get harder and harder to achieve, the good feeling just gets better and better.

MIMICRY

I don't know whether more Australian birds mimic than birds from other lands, but we certainly have a lot of mimics here. Everyone knows about lyrebirds imitating other birds and other sounds. We assume that this is the male endeavouring to impress any female within hearing distance. Why would she be impressed by his accurate impression of a car alarm? And lyrebirds are not the only birds to mimic. I'm told that many small passerines will mimic when they're in the hand. Are they frightened? Are they mimicking something big and scary to intimidate the person holding them? Not many honeyeaters mimic, but Regent Honeyeaters do. Why should just one honeyeater do this? Regents mimic wattlebirds and friarbirds (amongst others). In fact Little Wattlebirds are conned: they respond to the Regent's imitation. Australian Magpies mimic, although perhaps it is surprising that, for such a common bird, a bird I see every day, I've only ever been aware of them mimicking twice. The first time was some years ago at a park in Western Australia, when a bird imitated an entire race call, including the crowd reaction. I was spellbound. I'd never heard such a thing before - or since for that matter. I don't recall if the park was close to a raceway. The second time was quite recently, when a house was being built over the road from where I live and a magpie mimicked power tools. The clear conclusion is that not all magpies mimic. Just some individuals are that way inclined. What inspires them?

Other than this, I have two fascinating mimicking recollections. Well, I think that they're fascinating. The first was at Lake Gilles Conservation Park in South Australia when I was on a Peter Waanders tour and he was using callback tape to attract Copperback Quailthrush. A bird responded to the tape and we all believed it was a quailthrush. But not Peter. He said that it didn't sound quite right. We tracked the call down, and, of course, Peter was right. It was not a quailthrush. It was a Striated Pardalote mimicking a quailthrush! It certainly seemed to be calling in response to Peter's tape, but why would a bird do that? The second occasion was very recently when I was looking for Striated Grasswren at Yathong Nature Reserve in New South Wales. I thought I heard a grasswren, but it turned out to be an Inland Thornbill mimicking the grasswren's call. The thornbill called before I played the tape. I was excited and thought the thornbill must have learnt the call from grasswren. Therefore I must be close to my quarry. As far as I could tell, of the several Inland Thornbills present, just two individuals were mimicking grasswren calls. And, of course, I saw not a hint of any grasswren anywhere.

Inland Thornbills are well known mimics. This lovely photo is by Ken Haines. I am sure that if I had a better ear for bird calls, I'd recognize a lot more mimics. I suspect there are a lot of mimics out there. I'd love to know why birds mimic. I reckon there might just be as many reasons as there are birds mimicking. We will probably never know!

YATHONG NATURE RESERVE

Yathong Nature Reserve is in western New South Wales, an hour and a half's drive from Cobar. It is the only place to see the nominate race of the Striated Grasswren, called the Mukarrthippi Grasswren. Or not to see them as the case may be. I spent a few days trudging up and down in what I thought was suitable habitat and saw no hint of grasswren. The closest I came was a couple of Inland Thornbills mimicking the grasswren's call. The first time I heard this, my heart leapt and I thought I must be near the bird. Perhaps I was. But I saw no further evidence of it. I arrived on Saturday, spent Sunday and Monday looking for grasswren, took Tuesday off, partly to recover, but mainly to drive to Wilcannia and admire the race samueli of the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, went back to Yathong again that afternoon, then again spent Wednesday looking for grasswren, before returning home on Thursday. I gave those grasswren every chance to show themselves. Of course I knew that these birds are critically endangered, that the tiny population is estimated to be 12 individuals, with a low possibility that there might be as many as 20 inidividuals. So, with that understanding, I really have no right to be disappointed in not seeing them. Yathong is a large reserve. It covers an area of 115,604 hectares. Hardly surprising that I didn't see a dozen tiny birds.

I saw new races of Grey-fronted and Brown-headed Honeyeaters, which was lovely, but the black cockies gave me a disproportionate amount of pleasure. I'd looked for them unsuccessfully in both Western Australia in June and the Northern Territory in July, so I was absolutely delighted to see them along the Darling River in Wilcannia, calling and taunting me, as if they'd always been there - why did I waste my time looking in other states?

These new subspecies were consolation prizes. All I really wanted was a Mukarrthippi Grasswren. The habitat was perfect and the weather was good. I thought August would be the right time of year, the birds would be getting ready to breed, and might be singing and more easily heard. But they simply refused to play ball. Here's what I thought was ideal habitat: spinifex, white mallee, some broom bush and red earth.

There were lots of lovely kangaroos (four species: Red, Eastern Grey, Western Grey and Euros) but far, far too many goats. An expensive predator-proof fence was under construction at the reserve and the park was about to be closed for a week for aerial bating for foxes. In my very limited time at Yathong, I didn't see any foxes. I saw several feral cats, a handful of pigs, and thousands and thousands of goats. There was a little evidence of rabbits, but not a great deal. And, of course, dozens of emus. The predator-proof fence will enclose an area of some 8000 hectares for soft release of captive bred endangered species, after all the exotic interlopers have been removed. It is clear that a lot of work and a lot of money has gone into this project.

Yathong Nature Reserve is a long way from everywhere. We stayed in Cobar, which, as I say, is an hour and a half's drive away. Cobar is a mining town. It calls itself 'Copper City' and is very proud of its open cut. There is a moving memorial to miners, and a museum, which I confess I did not enter. But under the eaves of the museum building, dozens of Fairy Martins had built their mud nests. I've often seen other birds occupying old Fairy Martins' nests, but on this occasion, I was surprised to see Red-rumped Parrots doing so. This is a most inferior photo (taken with my camera) but, if you squint and hold your tongue in the corner of your mouth, with a bit of imagination, you can just about see that there are parrots occupying a couple of nests.

Forgive me, I have to amuse myself somehow when the grasswren refuse to entertain me.

THE RED CENTRE

I've just returned from a quick five day Bellbird tour of the Red Centre. What a spectacular continent we inhabit!

First, I should say that it was an enjoyable tour, with personable like-minded companions, fantastic landscapes, some lovely birds and a very knowledgeable guide, David Kowalick, who did his level best to show us elusive Sandhill Grasswren, Rufous-crowned Emuwren and a Grey Honeyeater. Now let me get my negative comments out of the way, before I tell you about the beautiful birds. I did not enjoy being cold at Kings Creek Station, where we were glamping, which seemed to me to be an excuse to provide inferior uninsulated accommodation. There were three major disappointments for me on this tour. One: since I was last at Kings Canyon in 1996, the number of Dusky Grasswren has reduced remarkably. I've been telling birders that Dusky Grasswren are the easiest grasswren to see. This is clearly no longer the case. In 1996, there were plenty, you couldn't miss them in fact. Now, we did not see one on the way up the staircase track to the top of the canyon, and were most relieved to see three birds on our way down. Clearly, it would be quite possible to go there and miss the birds entirely. (Now, I believe the easiest grasswren to see are either the Western Grasswren at Monkey Mia or the Pilbara Grasswren on Radio Hill at Newman.) Two: the number of feral camels has increased significantly. The Bellbird blurb tells us that "we might be lucky enough to see a herd or two of wild camels roaming." These are feral animals destroying our environment. It is not lucky to see them. It is distressing. And we saw plenty. And three: the wretched buffle grass is spreading everywhere, displacing spinifex, along with its natural inhabitants.

Without a doubt our most interesting sighting was a Copperback Quail-thrush, on the road south of Kings Canyon, outside its accepted range. We all saw it. There was no doubt about its identity. I thought we'd been hearing Cinnamon Quail-thrush, and perhaps we had. David tells me that the calls are very similar. Budgies are always beautiful, and it was terrific to see so many Black-breasted Buzzards. We watched Painted Finches come in for their morning drink, and saw Bourke's Parrots having their evening drink at a waterhole at night. Who knew they were nocturnal? Clearly, everyone except me. Personally, I got a lot of pleasure out of seeing an extremely large, pale Grey Fantail, with a long, white tail. This is race 'albicauda,' a new race for me. There were nine species we saw every day of the trip, all quite predictable I think: Crested Pigeon, Nankeen Kestrel and Brown Falcon, Willie Wagtail (my favourite), Magpie-lark, Zebra Finch and three honeyeaters: Singing, White-plumed and Spiny-cheeked. I had hoped to see a boobook, but all we managed on our two spotlighting expeditions, was one Barn Owl. We saw only two Pink Cockatoos, which we spotlighted when out looking for night birds. I had also hoped to see a Red-tailed Black Cockatoo (race 'samueli') but we didn't get so much as a glimpse of them. It just shows, I was quite wrong when I was sitting at home before the trip thinking Red-tailed Black Cockatoos are common birds and will be easy. There's a reason I hadn't seen this race before.

We saw just a couple of Diamond Doves and just a handful of Spinifex Pigeons - don't you love that crest? The Splendid Fairywrens lived up to their name and one male Mistletoebird sitting in the morning sun was a memorable sighting. We saw both Rufous and Brown Songlarks, and I learned that the Brown Songlark has a static call. Others saw Banded Whiteface, sadly, I dipped on this. I'm begining to think that the Pied Butcherbird has the most beautiful call of all our birds. We heard lots of Chiming Wedgebills, and finally saw one or two. There were Hooded and Red-capped Robins and oodles of Crimson Chats. We heard more Red-browed Pardalotes than we saw, but we did see a couple. There was one Western Bowerbird tending his bower in the Olive Pink Botanic Gardens in Alice Springs. It's always great to see both Black and Pied Honeyeaters. Of course we saw quite a few honeyeaters, but we dipped on both Grey and Grey-fronted. It was not as hot as I expected during the day, even when we were trudging up and down sand dunes looking for grasswren, but it was just as freezing cold as I expected overnight. If you haven't seen a Dusky Grasswren, my advice is, go sooner rather than later. They are not the easy bird they once were. And this is the closest I came to a Sandhill Grasswren.

WERRIBEE: WINDY, BUT ALWAYS WELCOME

When birding friends, Sandra and Misja, invited me to spend a day at Werribee with them, I jumped at the chance. Naturally. Who wouldn't? (This photo was taken by Sandra, and shows Sandra, Misja, Helen Yuille and me. It was taken by Sandra Walker.) We chose to go on Saturday, and were lucky with the weather. Of course it was cold and windy, but it is July after all. We invited our friend, Helen Yuille, to join us and started off (as I usually do) at the end of Point Wilson Road looking for Brolgas. All three of these people (that is to say, everyone in our group except me!) have excellent eyesight, so it is a pleasure to go birding with them. Sandra spied a couple of Brolga straight away, so we were off to a great start. I set myself the goal of seeing 70 species for the day, but I really wanted to see a Glossy Ibis and a European Greenfinch, both of which would have been new for my year list. As it happened, I came home with only 62 species for the day, and I did not see either of my target birds. You might think the day was a disappointment, but it was far from that. I had a wonderful time. I think it's fair to say that we all did. Only when I was home did I check my records. I have my personal Werribee records from 2000, when Melbourne Water first gave us lists to check off. (Checking my earlier records is a laborious task of going through old notebooks.) It's funny how your memory plays tricks on you. I'd have said that Glossy Ibis were not rare, uncommon yes, but rare, no. Indeed, that's how the list categorises them. In fact, I last saw a Glossy Ibis in spring 2018. I have ten Werribee records between 2000 and 2008. So, it's not a bird I can expect to see readily. I've seen many more Greenfinch. In 2022, I saw them in summer and spring, and I have 14 records between 2000 and 2018. But perhaps I should have seen them more frequently, because Melbourne Water categorises them as abundant. I'm not sure I agree that that assessment is still correct. If a bird is really 'abundant' I expect to see it every time I visit. Helen wanted to see an Austalasian Bittern and an Orange-bellied Parrot. Who doesn't? She, too, dipped on her targets. I last saw a bittern at Werribee in winter 2023, but I have just three records since 2000. I guess it's an exciting bird, so I tend to remember the sightings, but I'd have said that I'd seen them many more times than that. We saw some cooperative raptors during the day, such as this Black-shouldered Kite that Helen photographed.

We saw lots of Black-shouldered Kites throughout the day. Also Black Kites, Brown Falcons and Nankeen Kestrels, but, surprisingly, just one Whistling Kite. We saw more Black Swans in one spot in one day than I think I ever have before. We couldn't agree on a total, but certainly there were several hundred. We saw all the ducks you'd expect, except, for some reason, we dipped on one of my favourites, the Pink-eared Duck. We had marvelous close views of Red-necked Stints together with just a few Sharp-tailed and Curlew Sandpipers. I didn't get out the scope, they were so close you didn't really need binoculars. We saw four Black-tailed Nativehens as we were crossing the river, and just one very brazen Australian Crake on the track to the bird hide. He was quite happy out in the open, defying his shy and elusive reputation. For me, the Bird of the Day was unquesionably a Brown Songlark, that sat on the road in front of the car and invited us to admire him. A great day, thank you, Sandra and Misja! Amazing that it can be so good when nobody achieves his targets!

DIRK HARTOG ISLAND

White-winged Fairywrens are very pretty little birds, not rare, but the ones I know are a beautiful blue and white. All my life I have admired the illustrations in field guides of black White-winged Fairywrens and (naturally) I've always wanted to see one. I believed it was only possible to see the black and white subspecies on Dirk Hartog Island off Western Australia and that the island was inaccessible to the public. Last year, when I was birding in the Pilbara, I saw an advertisement for tourists to visit Dirk Hartog Island. I immediately made plans to go there. Dirk Hartog Island is located in Shark Bay, about half way up the WA coast. We had three days on the island, 'we' being me and my guide, Louis Masarei. I flew to Perth, where Louis met me and we drove to Geraldton, ticking the northern race of Western Corella on the way. The next day we drove to Hamelin Pool, where we saw a different race of Rufous Fieldwren, new to me. Most memorably, a darling little Redthroat sat at eye level and serenaded me beautifully. However, we made the mistake of staying at the caravan park, where my room was infested with dozens of tiny cockroaches. I was pleased to leave very early the next morning, where we saw a Spotted Nightjar on the road in the dark. We took our car on the barge to the island at 8.30, then had plenty of time to find fairywrens before we could book into our accommodation at 2. I'm not sure of the size of the island, but I was told it was 94 kilometres long. Here's what it looked like:

Most of the island was previously a sheep station, and our accommodation was the shearers' quarters. The sheep have long gone (except one pet dorper) and most of the island now is National Park. Various captive bred native animals have been released there and I confess I got almost as much joy from these little critters as I did from the birds I went there to see. And yes, Louis found me black and white White-winged Fairywrens pretty quickly. He has extremely accute hearing, which helps with all these tiny birds. The most remarkable thing about the fairywrens was that the male has a blue tail. This is not illustrated in most of the field guides (although it is shown accurately in HANZAB as you can see in the illustration at the top of this posting). Louis took this photo.

Then Louis turned his attention to the Rufous Fieldwren. The one on Dirk Hartog is Calamanthus campestris hartogi. It didn't take Louis long to provide me with excellent sightings of this bird too. Again, this is Louis' photo.

Now for the last of our trio, the local race of the Southern Emuwren. There were lots of Little Crows to distract us, including one with aberrant brown feathers.

Very sadly, we saw a dead one, his feet entangled in fishing line, attached to a tree, and, not a metre away, but quite inaccessible to the dangling bird, was its nest. It was too high for me to see if anything was in the nest, but the scenario does not bear thinking about. A bustard flew off, grunting, sounding to me like a White-faced Heron. I don't remember hearing them vocalise before. We visited the blowhole, then booked into our accommodation, but we had not seen or heard any emuwrens. The next day I made the mistake of agreeing to go on a so-called 'Marine Safari.' I hoped to see some seabirds. In fairness, no one mentioned seabirds. The talk was all of whales and dugongs, and we certainly saw those. We also saw a large leopard shark and a very pretty sea snake. But I did not go to Dirk Hartog Island to see a pretty sea snake! Louis saw some Wilson's Storm Petrels. They were too quick for me, but, even if I had seen them, they would not have satisfied me that my day had been well spent. Apart from anything else, I did not like the loud popular music they played on the boat. 'Unpopular' would be a more appropriate description for me. Back on land, my mind returned to emuwrens. Again, they proved elusive. That evening, we were driven to the highest point of the island, Herald Heights, to admire the sunset. There were two 4 wheel drives, each with 4 passengers. I was not particularly enthusiastic, but I saw no reason not to go. It took about half an hour driving over sand dunes to get there. We were offered bubbly and stood around waiting for the sun to set. We were soon joined by several little critters and the sunset was quite forgotten. Perhaps the best (for me), or at least the most photogenic, was this Western Barred Bandicoot. I took this photo with my phone.

We also saw a Desert Mouse, a Heath Mouse and, something I'd always wanted to see, a Great Stick Nest Rat. Both Rufous and Banded Hare-Wallabies were seen along the road and at the homestead. The next day, our final day on the island, we really had to see the hartogi race of Southern Emuwren. Although I had come primarily for the black White-winged Fairywren, and we had seen that well, naturally I wanted to see all the endemics. Two out of three is simply not good enough! It was very windy, which makes hunting small birds difficult. Of course Louis eventually succeeded, and we had quite adequate views of the emuwrens. Here's his photo to prove it:

We took the barge back to the mainland the following morning, pleased with our three out of three subspecies success. Before flying back to Perth out of Learmonth (leaving Louis to find his own way home) I admired several other new races and saw my first Black-flanked Rock Wallabies at Yardie Creek. I saw Canary White-eye (race 'balstoni'), Copperback Quailthrush (race 'clarum'), some beautiful Black-tailed Treecreepers (race 'wellsi') on the dry Gasgoyne River and, despite irritating Louis because I didn't want to get my feet wet in the mangroves, a very handsome White-breasted Whistler (race carnovoni) at Wapet Creek. The trip was 100% successful. I saw the black and white White-winged Fairywren and I ended up with 11 new subspecies on my lifelist, and that's not bad, I'm sure you'll agree.

WELCOME TO WINTER!

It is a beautiful sunny day today. Not at all wintery. It is no secret that I like the first day of the month. I'm like a school kid with a new exercise book: everything must be perfect on the first page. I start my new monthly birdlist full of optimism. This will be my best June ever. In fact, my best June ever was in 2008, when I saw 259 species! Not bad. However, in June 2008, not only did I spend a weekend at sea (out of Ulladulla), but I visited Iron Range. Any visit to Queensland is going to increase your total significantly. This month, my only trip will be a week in WA, visiting Dirk Hartog Island. I'll have a guide (always an easy way to boost your total) but still it is only a week. If I get 150 for the month, I'll be doing well. Never mind, it is the first day of the month and I'm going to do my best. I started the day as usual with my morning walk. This morning I visited Hay's Paddock. I came home with a grand total of 16, the best bird being an Australian King Parrot. After watching 'Insiders' on TV (compulsory viewing for me) I set off for Willsmere Billabong, an easy walk from home. I thought I might add another 5 species to my monthly total. When I arrived, there was a soccer match in progress on the oval. Welcome Swallows were swooping amongst the players. Magpie-larks, Noisy Miners and Rainbow Lorikeets made their presence felt. I walked straight to the river. There is a path beside the river which can be quite productive. Today I saw Brown Thornbills and White-browed Scrubwren and heard Spotted Pardalotes. I am always pleased to hear pardalotes. Like all our small birds, they are becoming less common. These ones were on the other side of the river, high in the canopy, and there was no chance of seeing them. My disappointment was short-lived because I could suddenly hear black cockies! What a joy! I hurried along the track to where they were playing in a wattle. Seeing black cockies makes me feel good for hours. Some birds do that; just a glimpse gives me a warm glow. These birds put a smile on my face and I quite forgot about not being able to see the pardalotes. Black cockies really are beautiful, big birds. Here's proof. (Sorry, this is the best I could do with my phone.)

The reason I'd chosen Willsmere as my first walk for the month, was that I was hoping that my friendly frogmouths would be sitting at home in their gum tree as they should be. They went AWOL for several months, but they were back in May and I had every reason to hope that they'd still be there to celebrate the first day of June with me. A pair of Tawny Frogmouths lives in Stradbroke Park, quite close to home, but they went AWOL last December and have not yet returned home. My Willsmere birds had moved a few trees away, but were still visible until they returned to their rightful tree last month. As soon as I could drag myself away from the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos I hurried to 'the' tree, and instantly saw just one frogmouth. He was pretending to sleep, but I could see that he was in fact well aware of my presence through his seemingly shut eyes. He was quite high in the tree, safely above photographic height for my phone. I was satisfied just to admire him. I sat on the seat by the river and wrote up the birds I'd seen. I was quite pleased with myself, despite knowing that, had I done the same walk thirty years ago, I would have seen at least twice as many birds. There would have been honeyeaters and whistlers and perhaps even an Azure Kingfisher. I put this unwanted thought out of my head and set off for the billabong. There were black ducks, one Australasian Grebe and one Little Black Cormorant. Without adding Red-rumped Parrots, Eastern Rosellas or Common Bronzewings to my list (all birds I'd expected to see) I continued my walk. As elsewhere around Melbourne, things were pretty dry. The creek (really a drain) that empties into the billabong wasn't running, so I didn't bother checking for herons. Nor did I examine the golf course for Maned Duck. I still hoped to get fairywrens onto the list, and turned for home. There were too many Noisy Miners (let's face it, one is too many) and quite a few welcome Brown Thornbills, but alas no fairywrens. I'll have to make do with black White-winged Fairywrens on Dirk Hartog. (White-winged Fairywrens everywhere else in Australia are an attractive deep blue and I've always hankered after a black one. Hence the trip to Dirk Hartog.) Still glowing from my black cockies, I went home happy. I'd added 8 birds to my monthly total. I'd seen my frogmouth AND I'd seen black cockies.