Capertee - Dubbo - Nyngan Weir - Cobar (and back)
In an Eggshell:
Big Zigzag bird species count: 603 (+3 this week)
Big Zigzag bird families count: 90 (+0 this week)
Big Zigzag Lifers: 157 (+2 this week: Regent Honeyeater, Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush)
Campsite Lifers 30 (+0 this week)
Big Zigzag New for Australia list: 211 (+2 this week), AU list now 640.
eBird AU year list: 476
eBird days of checklist streak: 495
Week’s special milestones: Cleanup all Aussie’s Quail-thrushes; Cleanup genus Anthochaera (Wattlebirds) with Regent Honeyeaters.
Bird(s) of the Week
Critically endangered Regent Honeyeater (Anthochaera phrygia) is actually a Wattlebird (sharing the genus Anthochaera with Little, Western, Red & Yellow Wattlebirds). Luckily I got permit to access a confidential protected area where one individual (the banded one) released back to nature on recovery program, and second individual joined him from the wild (the un-banded).
Mistletoebird (Dicaeum hirundinaceum), member of Dicaeidae (Flowerpeckers), demonstrates a threesome symbiosis: The relationships with Mistletoe can be descried as mutualism, as both parties benefit: The bird easts the fruits, and spared the plant seeds. But the remains of these fruits are sticky, so the bird scratches its bot on a tree trunk, where the other part of symbiosis take place. Mistletoe bush grew on this tree as parasitic who consume the tree resources until they both die. (an example below).
Although dipped the Black-backed Bittern, Dubbo Sewage Treatment Plant and Bird Hide got some nature cruelty footage of Great Egret hunting duckling
Non-bird image(s)
Capertee toilets on the rest area not only painted with Regent Honeyeater: speaker ongoing playbacking the bird calls.
Rounded mistletoe bush parasite other tree near Cobar.
Dubbo Sewage Treatment Plant Bird Hide
Sand Goanna (Varanus gouldiiform) NSW outback near Cobar.
Week's Key location(s)
Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush site near Cobar
Although dipped the Black-backed Bittern, Dubbo Sewage Treatment Plant and Bird Hide is great birding spot!
Big Zigzag Travelled so far: 67300 km (this week 1375 km)
eBird Checklists this week
