ML618804364

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Rufous Songlark including juveniles. Note the marked streaking on breast and duller superciium. Irruption of dozens of this species this weekend having seen none all wet season. My experience in the Gulf is that they suddenly arrive sometime from late January to April/May from southern breeding areas and there is some calling and song flights for a week or so up to a month or two (seemingly dependent on arrival time: earlier = longer) and then they become quite silent, departing later in the year often becoming vocal with song flights before they do so. I do not have evidence of breeding here and have always suspected that that this pattern of behaviour on arrival is simply a "hangover" of southern breeding behaviour. Birds today seemed to be associating with White-winged Trillers and Black-faced Woodswallows and were feeding and moving about as a coalition in small defined areas approx 100 x100m.

Technical information

Dimensions

2602 pixels x 2505 pixels

Original file size

5.79 MB