Endemic Tasmanian Birds

A tiny scrubtit, so small it could dance in the palm of your hand, had found its place in the sun. In the dim and dank world of the fern glade the scrubtit had emerged from the shadows and found a warm rock on which to perform a merry dance. This was the male's territory of fern frond and tumbling stream and he wanted the world to know it. The scrubtit, barely 10cm long, is one of Tasmania’s forgotten birds, easily overlooked as nature lovers go in search of more … [Read more...] about Scrubtit

Echoing the title of the Coen brothers’ film, No Country for Old Men, Tasmania can be no country for the lazy birdwatcher. At least as far as the Tasmanian thornbill is concerned. The thornbill not only falls into the category of difficult to identify, LBBs (little brown birds), but its identification is compounded by a remarkably similar mainland species also found in Tasmania, the brown thornbill. To separate them requires time and patience, although if the birder … [Read more...] about Tasmanian thornbill

Tasmania’s endemic birds are a living link to the state’s history and there is no greater example of this connection than the dusky robin. The robin made itself known to the first settlers as they set about clearing the land of native forest. It was, in fact, known as the “stump robin” for its habit of using the stumps of felled trees as a convenient perch to pounce on insects on the ground. No doubt it also hung around the encampments of the Aborigines during their own … [Read more...] about Dusky robin

The native hen is one of those creatures that looks like it doesn’t belong to the world of nature. It’s not the product of evolution but the cartoonist’s pen. It joins the Roadrunner from Looney Tunes as being more at home on the screen than in the natural environment. I look at the native hen in the same way I look at the eastern rosella. The rosella’s mix of crimson, green, yellow and white in its plumage is a contradiction of colour. It appears too disarming, too … [Read more...] about Tasmanian native hen

The call of the black currawong is the sound of the mountains in Tasmania, the trumpet song ringing out from the highest peaks. Every time I receive requests from tourists, and their local hosts, to tell them where to find the species I wonder why it should be so high on the birders’ list, along with the yellow wattlebird. To me, another bird associated with the high country, the green rosella, is far more exciting, but perhaps that’s because I have a l fascination with … [Read more...] about Black currawong