<%@LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> Lancaster and District Birdwatching Society Newsletter My Favourite Birds
Newsletter of the Lancaster and District Birdwatching Society
My Favourite Birds
Summer 2001
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When asked,'What is your favourite bird?' A Yorkshire birdwatcher I knew well, used to reply 'The last one I saw'!

But I am sure we do all have favourites, birds we delight in seeing more than others. When visiting a new area you flick through the field guide and certain species really cry out to be seen! For me the birds I have spent some time studying have become firm favourites. Dunnocks were my first passion as I colour ringed them on our farm. At Leighton, coot, which I studied for many years, gave me a deep interest. They certainly are birds of character as they posture, fight and chase over their territories in spring, and what could be nicer than seeing the adults tenderly feeding their rather grotesque red-headed young? My current British favourite is of course bearded tit. Certainly they are well up in the good-looking stakes. A South African birder, who talked at the last Ringers Conference about the colourful birds of his country and poked fun at the drab European birds, partly changed his views when he saw my bearded tit slides!

However I do like to see good looking, almost startling birds especially those with red in their plumage. In Africa one of my delights is the aptly described skylark-like 'rosy breasted longclaw'. This exemplifies many African bird names. You don't really have to see the bird to get an idea what it looks like and believe me it really is a little gem. Partly helped by the fact that it is rather hard to see and then suddenly emerges from the grass to flaunt itself briefly on a bush, the red contrasting so well with a black chest band.  I like shrikes as a family, possibly because we are so starved of them in Britain. So what could be better than the rosy patched shrike with a rosy-red breast and rump, again it is a skulker but then suddenly it puts in an appearance. Another bush shrike, common from Uganda to West Africa is the black-headed gonolek. The names reveals its black head (and back) but its most striking feature is the brilliant red breast and underparts. Then in African grassland you have red bishops and red-collared widowbirds and so on. I'll have to stop now or I will have to start making arrangements for a further African trip!

But enough of Africa. What is my really favourite bird of all? Well its got to have some red in it preferably contrasting with black, good looking, active and well - different. One species passes on all counts, - the male red backed wren of Queensland. The whole fairy wren family have great charm, about the size of our wren but with a long tail that they cock rather like a wren or a Dartford warbler. The males are very colourful but the females are rather drab. The first species to be seen by European settlers was aptly called the superb blue wren! They live in small family groups.  Their social behaviour is so bizarre to European eyes. All the group, including sub adult males, join in feeding and rearing the brood, and in some species the young of the first brood help to feed the next brood. The red backed wren is the most striking of the species I have seen so far, believe me it really is a jewel. But I may change my mind when I eventually see the red winged wren or what about the lilac-crowned wren? Certainly though is someone offered to pay for me to study any bird of my choice at the moment I would plump for the red-backed wren.

Certain groups also give me a thrill, I do like bustards. To see over a 100 great bustards displaying on the open Hungarian Plain takes some beating, The sight is truly amazing as the neck is inflated and the puffed out white wing and tail coverts give the whole bird a 'foam bath' appearance. One draw back is that they don't really allow anything but a telescope view. The Kori bustard of Africa or the Australian Bustard (claimed to be the same species but they look different to me) both allow a close vehicular approach as they slowly and majestically stalk off. But my favourite of this group is the striking black-bellied bustard of Africa, its display flight is unique, thrusting itself vertical into the air with exaggerated wing beats then collapsing back to earth. This impressive performance is accompanied by a wheezy call rising to a resounding plop!

Talking of calls and song opens up another aspect of the subject. Personally I think a blackbird in good voice on a still warm spring evening takes a lot of beating, and so does a blackcap. By contrast most African and especially Australian bird sounds are rather harsh but again different. To visit the Australian rain forest and hear the aptly named whip bird is another favourite as is the tropical bou bou of Africa. Both employ the tactic that the male gives the start of the call and the female the end, but you can't detect the join! Its only when the female fails to join in that you appreciate how perfect the duet really is.

Unlike our editor I have never really taken to sea watching, it's a little too inactive for me, but to see breeding sea birds is another matter. Again its partly because you can get so close. Massed puffins or gannets are fantastic, so is the black, glossed with green plumage of a shag a few metres away with its bright yellow gape and that rather stupid recurved tuft. In Australia to have white capped noddies in their hundreds nesting in small bushes almost within touching distance was such an experience.

Well I could go on there are so many more, like another Australian, the noisy pitta a rainbow of colours on two stilts, seen nonchalantly turning over leaves at the end of a two hour search! Or the five species of humming bird in one flowering tree in Venezuela, or the blue tit on the garden feeder. Perhaps on reflection I suppose that my Yorkshire friend I mentioned at the beginning really had a point! Let's hear about your favourites.

John Wilson




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