Talk:Birds of Australia

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Tannin, I've done a bit of tinkering, mainly with links. You had better check I've not subverted anything important. Of the 54 species of true wren, 53 are confined to the Americas, so I've rephrased that.

I think that this article is a good idea, and I might knock up a similar page for Europe. jimfbleak 10:38 Apr 1, 2003 (UTC)

I wikified a bunch of the common names and did some reorginization. Also added the link to the oz raptor page. I have a "Cockatiel" page in the works but not ready yet. Milkfish 10:59 Apr 1, 2003 (UTC)

Milkfish: cool! The more help the better. There is certainly no shortage of work to be done.

Taking your second thought first, Jim, I guess my theory is that it's easy enough to knock up lots and lots of species descriptions if one has a fieldguide or two handy (or even just knows how to use Google), but that these don't actually mean much unless we can set them in a context. This is where this sort of entry (or your excellent bird migration one) comes in: it's there to make the other entries make sense. In my book, context is everything; it's only by placing our knowledge in a context of some kind that we actually get to make use of it, build on it. -- Err ... I used to be a teacher one upon a time in my disreputable past. I guess it still shows. :) Anyway, yes, do that Europe one when you get time. I'll look forward to reading it. I'll come back to this and expand it eventually too.

Links: no harm done. I have a few ideas in the back of my mind, but they are to entries that I haven't written yet. I'll adjust them when the time comes (if need be). Oh, and our wrens are the true ones! I have no idea why those Johny-come-lately Northern Hemisphere types get this wrong. Something to do with the water in the bathtub going round the wrong way, I think. :) Tannin

Contents 1 Aussie birds 2 This is not a list 3 endangered species? 4 Page merge suggestion 5 Ostrich? 6 Flamingo? 7 Field Guides 8 White-throated Pigeon

[edit] Aussie birds

Gee, neat site and neat and informative bird pages. Thank you to everyone who has contributed.

Here's a question for those who know Australian birds. A few years ago, I ran across a description of an Australian bird that estivates (or "aestivates", as it would be written in Australia or the UK). To my dismay, I have forgotten what bird it is. Do you know, or can you direct me to a likely source for that information? Naturally, I will be extremely grateful, if someone could let me know the species by email. My email address is b_nospam_jones@cmc.net [but remove the underlines and the "nospam", which I have included to foil the spammers email address harvesting bots that lift addresses off Web pages]. I look fwd to hearing from one (or more) of the bird experts who've made the Wikipedia bird pages so good.

Bob

I don't know, Bob, but I'll see if I can find out. Tannin 20:04, 9 Sep 2003 (EDT)

Bob, the experts all think that you are getting Australia and South America mixed up, and are thinking of hummingbirds. Tannin

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I was wondering about Cockatoos and the galah, should they be listed? - Shiftchange 00:37, 8 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] This is not a list

This is not a list. Its a small summarry article, I'm not sure (in light of an unused section available in Australian fauna) if it should even exist.

If it does exist it should be expanded to include detail on prominent australian avian-life such as galahs, cockatiels and other common parrot-parakeet family birds. AS well as waterbirds, and possibly moved to Australian birds (which currently redirects here) as this is NOT a comprehensive list.

List of Australasian birds is a comprehnsive list.

--ZZ 05:39, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] endangered species?

I think there should be more information about the degree of endangerment Aussie birds are facing. I'm not sure that there is any—I've never even owned a budgie—but if there is little or none, I think even that should be noted. All we have here is a mention of one of the "more endangered" species. Any thoughts? — riana_dzasta • t • c • e • 06:14, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

Yep, we do extinction pretty well here. There are plenty of bird species in serious trouble, and a few already considered extinct. Have a look at Orange-bellied Parrot, Eastern Bristlebird, Golden-shouldered Parrot, Noisy Scrub-bird, Christmas Frigatebird, Lord Howe Woodhen. The article needs work. --Glen Fergus 10:24, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

There is also this list incomplete list of Endangered Australian fauna.--Peta 00:51, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Page merge suggestion

It's simple enough. The list page is for the regional bird list, of which there are many on WP - all called "List of...". The list page is a list, that is all. Anything else about Australian birds belongs somewhere else - currently that is the "Birds of Australia" page, which, of course, cross-references the list page. So where, exactly, is the problem? --Glen Fergus 06:56, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ostrich?

Ostrich? Seriously? I would delete it, but I'm worried it's there for a reason that's not immediately obvious. Lomaprieta 12:37, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

Conventionally, regional bird lists include all birds found in the region, excluding captives. Ostriches don't occur naturally in Australia, but some have escaped captivity and become established as feral breeding populations. I think those have now all died out(?), so the entry should probably be tagged: "introduced, locally extinct(?)".--Glen Fergus 00:38, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

The New Atlas of Australian Birds (fieldwork 1998-2002) does not mention the species, so I believe the small wild population (based on escapees) in South Australia must have become extinct. Maias 02:41, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Flamingo?

As with the ostrich, is there a reason for the inclusion of the Greater Flamingo in the list of Australian birds that is not immediately obvious? I can find no reference elsewhere... Flynn MacCallister 23:34, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

This comes straight from the Birds Australia check list. Guess there was a feral population of escapees, now extinct, as for Ostrich. This doc says that there is only one captive Greater Flamingo left in the whole country!--Gergyl 00:29, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

My guess is that it refers to vagrants. There would not have been a feral population, as was (or maybe still is) with the Ostrich. --Michael Johnson 00:38, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Single vagrant record from the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Maias 06:20, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

To elaborate: single record from North Keeling, 26 April - 15 June 1988. Info from HANZAB 1B, p.1111. Maias 06:26, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Does a single vagrant record really justify inclusion? Flynn MacCallister 01:26, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Technically, yes - however silly it may seem. Maias 01:32, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Field Guides

Like your improvements to the page Maias. I added the field guides list, mainly because it's the first question OS visitors ask. The order is important. Pizzey ahead of Slater is a fair matter of opinion - personally I don't much like either. But newbie Morcombe ahead of Simpson and Day, now in its seventh edition and by some Australia's most respected ornithologist, is just nonsense. --Glen Fergus 00:21, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

OK, no worries. I prefer the layout in Morecombe, though certainly the illustrations in S&D are better. Each to their own... Maias 01:12, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] White-throated Pigeon

Can someone tell me why the Metallic Pigeon, Columba vitiensis, also known as the White-throated Pigeon, is on the Australian bird list? Maias 09:54, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

OK - don't bother; have worked it out for myself - it used to be on LHI. Maias 09:58, 1 February 2007 (UTC)