Wild Bird Wednesday: Eurasian or Australian Coot

The Eurasian Coot, with its sooty-black plumage and gleaming white bill and frontal shield covering its forehead, is a familiar bird across Europe and Asia as well as Australia. The Australian subspecies is known as the Australian Coot. It is a member of the rail and crake bird family, the Rallidae.

The Australian Coot is often seen running across the water’s surface or swimming in huge flocks on large wetlands, but they equally often occur on small ponds. They require submerged aquatic vegetation or mats of floating waterweed, among which they forage, diving below the surface for up to 20 seconds, or plucking the stems of emergent shoots.

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Wild Bird Wednesday: Australian Pelican

The Australian Pelican is found throughout Australia, Papua New Guinea and western Indonesia, with occasional reports in New Zealand and various western Pacific islands.

Males are larger than females. The most characteristic feature of pelicans is the elongated bill with its massive throat pouch. The Australian Pelican's bill is 40 cm - 50 cm long and is larger in males than females. Pelicans have large wings and a wingspan of 2.3 m - 2.5 m

Pelicans are widespread on freshwater, estuarine and marine wetlands and waterways including lakes, swamps, rivers, coastal islands and shores.

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Wild Bird Wednesday: Rainbow Lorikeet

The Rainbow Lorikeet is unmistakable with its bright red beak and colourful plumage. Both sexes look alike, with a blue (mauve) head and belly, green wings, tail and back, and an orange/yellow breast. They are often seen in loud and fast-moving flocks, or in communal roosts at dusk.

Rainbow Lorikeets are such colourful parrots that it is hard to mistake them for other species. The related Scaly-breasted Lorikeet is similar in size and shape, but can be distinguished by its all-green head and body.

Last week I shared information and images of the Scaly-breasted Lorikeet (also seen below with the Rainbow Lorikeet).

The Rainbow Lorikeet mostly forages on the flowers of shrubs or trees to harvest nectar and pollen, but also eats fruits, seeds and some insects. The Rainbow Lorikeet appears to have benefited from artificial feeding stations and prolific-fruiting and flowering trees and shrubs.

The Rainbow Lorikeet is found in a wide range of treed habitats including rainforest and woodlands, as well as in well-treed urban areas.

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Wild Bird Wednesday: Crested Tern

The Crested Tern is a seabird in the tern family, native to Australia, that nests in dense colonies on coastlines and islands.
The adults of both sexes are identical in appearance, with grey upperparts, white underparts, a yellow bill, and a shaggy black crest that recedes in winter. Juveniles have a distinctive appearance, with strongly patterned grey, brown and white plumage, and rely on their parents for food for several months after they have fledged. Like all members of the genus Thalasseus, the Crested Tern feeds by plunge diving for fish, usually in marine environments; the male offers fish to the female as part of the courtship ritual.

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Wild Bird Wednesday: Wandering Whistling-Duck

The Wandering Whistling-Duck is a large duck with rich red-brown plumage overall, with a paler face, front of neck and upper breast. There is a dark stripe on the crown of head, nape and back of neck. The bill and legs are dark.
There are elongated flank plumes, which are off-white with chestnut edges. In flight, the dark underwings, cinnamon and chestnut underbody, white undertail and trailing dark legs are seen.

This species is also known as the Whistling Tree-Duck, Water Whistling-Duck and the Red Whistler.

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