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Birdwatchers use a term with ANZAC roots – Jizz – to identify birds that at first sight may look similar. The acronym is actually GISS (General Impression of Shape and Size) and this was a vital aid in helping the Diggers and Australian air and naval crews distinguish between Japanese planes and those of the allies during the Second World War. In birding terms, the more informal Jizz helps to separate similar species by focusing less on shape and markings and more on … [Read more...] about Birds and all that ‘jizz’

The New Zealand travel bubble might have started to much fanfare but for some trans-Tasman travellers it has never applied. A small shorebird from New Zealand, the double-banded plover, has not only defied travel restrictions, it has defied the laws of migration which generally sees birds travel north in autumn. The New Zealand waders travel in the opposite direction, from alpine areas on that country’s South Island to Tasmanian shores. From about April to September, … [Read more...] about Double trouble for plovers

The clocks had gone back, darkness fell earlier and all of a sudden I felt a chill in my bones, and a flock of departing summer visitors, striated pardalotes, could feel it too. As I contemplated the looming winter, the pardalotes were on their way back to the mainland, travelling as far north as the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, if not further. All spring and summer their incessant “pick-me-up” triple-syllable song had bounced across my garden and through my home and … [Read more...] about Striated pardalotes in search of the sun

A dusky robin sits on a mossy branch, with the classic upright stance that in dim light helps to distinguish the species. The dusky, as its name suggests, lacks the red or pink of the other robin species seen in Tasmania, and so I listen for another identifying feature, the soft, melancholic tune which birders describe as the “sad song.” The song doesn’t come, nor the flutter of wings, and I realise that artist Belinda Kurczok, has played a sly trick on me. She has … [Read more...] about Bird artists rule the roost

With the first glow of light in the morning sky, as the sun stirs behind the Eastern Shore, the merry chortle of the yellow-throated honeyeater starts up. Although I’m a light sleeper, I’m not troubled by the sound ringing through the treetops. And in half-sleep I listen for the emerging songs of the other birds in a soundscape that will soon become a cacophony. The guttural call of the yellow and brush wattlebirds next, and then the beautiful cadence of the butcherbird, its … [Read more...] about Dawn chorus finds its voice