List of Australian Birds, partial - 1 to 35

My Bird List from Australia


Silver Gulls near St. Kilda beach, Victoria, Aus.

Though I am back in Canada, I so loved being in Australia and experiencing the wildlife/birdlife there that I'm keeping this list active.

This list is in the same order as my book, Field Guide to the Birds of Australia, Simpson and Day, 7th Edition, Penguin-Viking Books, 2004, a gift from my dh Colin for Christmas 2008.

Besides the common bird name, I insert the abbreviations for the state where I saw this species. Qld = Queensland, NSW = New South Wales, Vic = Victoria, SA = South Australia, WA = Western Australia. We lived in all these states from December 2000 to March 2009.

1
Emu, Vic
Dromaius novaehollandiae

2
Australian Bush Turkey, NSW
Alectura lathami

3
Indian Peafowl - Peacock, Qld, Vic
Pavo cristatus

4
Little Penguin, Vic
Eudyptula minor

5
Australian Pelican, Qld, NSW, Vic
Pelecanus conspicillatus

6
Darter, Vic
Anhinga melanogaster

7
Pied Cormorant, Qld, NSW, Vic
Phalacrocorax varius

8
Magpie Goose, Vic
Anseranas semipalmata

9
Black Swan, Qld, NSW, Vic
Cygnus atratus

10
Pacific Black Duck, Vic
Anas superciliosa

11
Mallard, Qld, NSW, Vic
Anas platyrhynchos

12
Musk Duck, Vic
Biziura lobata

13
Purple Swamphen, Qld
Porphyrio porphyrio

14
White-Faced Heron, Qld, NSW, Vic
Egretta (Ardea) novahollandiae

15
Cattle Egret, Qld, NSW
Ardea ibis

16
Australian White Ibis, Qld, NSW, Vic, WA
Threskiornis molucca

17
Brolga, Vic
Grus rubicunda

18
Australian Bustard, Vic
Ardeotis australis

19
Ruddy Turnstone, Vic
Arenaria interpres

20
Red-Necked Phalarope, Vic
Phalaropus lobatus

21
Pied Oystercatcher, Vic
Haematopus longirostris

22
Masked Lapwing, Qld, NSW, Vic
Vanellus miles

23
Silver Gull, Qld, NSW, Vic, SA, WA
Larus novaehollandiae



24
Pacific Gull, Vic, SA, WA
Larus pacificus

25
Fairy Tern, Vic
Sterna nereis

26
Osprey, Qld, NSW, Vic, WA
Pandion haliaetus

27
Wedge-Tailed Eagle, NSW, Vic
Aquila audax

28
Australian Nankeen Kestrel, Vic
Falco cenchroides

29
White-Headed Pigeon, NSW
Columba leucomela

30
Rock Dove or Feral Pigeon, Qld, NSW, Vic, SA, WA
Columba livia

31
Spotted Turtledove, Qld, NSW, Vic, SA, WA
Streptopelia chinensis

32
Laughing Turtledove, WA
Streptopelia senegalensis

33
Diamond Dove, Qld, NSW
Geopelia cuneata

34
Bar-Shouldered Dove, Qld, NSW
Geopelia humeralis

35
Common Bronzewing Dove, Vic, WA
Phaps chalcoptera

I'll stop here as I am getting tired. This was fun!
Will do it again soon.

Bird-Lover52

Also updated one of my other blogs, Balsa Mifera Woods - it's all about the birds there, too, but in Canada!

Back in Canada

Canada is my home and I am so happy we are back here, to live this time. Our new home will be on Chemin Des Lapins where I hope to see and photograph many birds.

We are now living at my sister's and she feeds everything that comes to her back yard:

Fox
Crows
Blue Jays
Chickadees
Common Redpoll
Nuthatches (both NB species)
Tree Sparrow

I'm on the watch for Horned Larks at this time of the year, and anything else that may be heading North early. Robins, perhaps?

I'll be back with photos tomorrow...

Birding in Australia is awesome!

My first post on this blog and it's one I've wanted to do for a very long time. Not having the tools to, first of all, do the type of birding that I really was after, I reluctantly waited until that happened and now, here I am.

My list of birding tools recently acquired:
~ A camera with a decent zoom lens (now have a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28)
~ A good field guide (Got yesterday: Field Guide to Australian Birds)
~ A Log Book for my Life List (also acquired yesterday with the Field Guide)

And being in a country like Australia, plus having a love for birds, it just begs the question, "What Am I waiting FOR?"....

Now's the time, here's the blog!

A little background. Born in Canada, loved birds since I was ten or so, raised on a farm and the surrounding fields and forests were my playground. Habitats: Boreal Forest, littoral - sand dunes, river banks, and of course, the farmyard, which is a habitat all its own, in rural New Brunswick. All my young years, I kept a diary of birds and their life cycles in small notebooks, detailing every element of every aspect of my sightings. I still have those notebooks, complete with maps that I drew myself. This was all before the time of computers and word processors. Now I am starting anew, many, many years later, because I miss this connection to Nature so much.

I moved to Australia in 2000 to be with my Aussie husband, whom I met online. We travelled extensively in this country, doing house-sittings and then settling in Victoria in a little cottage called Wildwood. Now we live in the Perth Hills, back to our old house-sitting ways, so comfortable with this lifestyle that we returned to it gratefully. Perth has different birds than the Melbourne suburbs, so it's exciting to see them, study them and try to identify a whole new birdlife in these surroundings.

I have kept a list of my bird sightings off and on all my life, but this one that I am starting again will be different. From Canada to Australia, the birds are not the same, to say the least!
This is my Life List, with a twist. It will contain the photos of the birds I see and document, not only the names of my winged friends.

I will be back with the photos.... and the first birds on my List.

Cheers
Stella