Breeding Birds of Mallacoota

As the season advances birds are beginning to set up for breeding - or in some cases have set up and got down to business.

That being the case, and noting that breeding activity is a key element of recording birds, I have decided to review what eBird has to show about breeding in the Mallacoota area.

EBird uses a quite wide range of birding codes grouped together into categories of 'Confirmed, Probable and Possible.  The Canberra Ornithologists Group (COG) uses a much more restricted list but it is possible to reference one from the other.  This is my attempt at this - the official COG approach may be marginally different.

t 00 Breeding codes

eBird code	eBird words	COG code	Sequence
NY	nest with young	NY	1
NE	nest with eggs	NE	2
FS	Faecal Sac	FS	3
ON	Occupied Nest	ON	4
CN	Carrying Nesting material	NB	5
NB	Nest Building	NB	5
C	Courtship, Display, Copulation	DI/CO	6
CF	Carrying Food	CF	7
FY	Feeding Young	DY	8
FL	Recently Fledged	DY	9
DD	Distraction Display	DI/CO	10
N	Visiting possible Nest site	IH	11
T	Territorial Defence		90
A	Agitated behaviour		91
B	Dummy nest possible		92
PE	Physiological evidence		93
M	Multiple singing males		94
S7	Singing male 7+ days		95
S	Singing male in season		96
P	Pair in suitable habitat		97
UN	Used nest		98
H	In appropriate habitat		99

The most difficult category is the 'preliminaries' where COG uses two codes for Display and Copulation (in the table below I have included the eBird code for Distraction Display in here, which is possibly not what is intended by COG as distraction displays can occasionally occur in other circumstances.

I regard some of the eBird codes as aspirational at best (although noting the North American origins of eBird I recall that a major Canadian Breeding Bird Survey was based on recording singing males).  However just because a code exists doesn't mean it has to be used by analysts (or for data input: those marked in red above have not been reported in records  for Mallacoota).

Indeed some of the codes which are also recorded by COG are a little iffy.

• In some species young birds are fed  long after they have fledged and possibly a fair distance from the nest (I have argued for a separate code - IY = Indolent Young - for this situation).
• The eBird code N in Australia is effectively the COG code IH (= Inspecting Hollow) mainly used for parrots and cockatoos.  They inspect hollows year-round, probably using them as roost sites as well as well as nest sites.
• In theory the COG code DY should be taken as equivalent to the eBird code FY, but I suspect a fluffy chick begging on a twig, or a duck chick that obviously can't fly (in both cases eBird code FL) also get recorded as DY.

Enough with the concepts already.  What does the eBird data for Mallacoota tell us?

The primary result is that eBird contains at least 1 breeding record for 60 species  In total there are 147 breeding records in the Mallacoota area.  As we have ~54,000 records covering 306 species; phrases such as "Could try harder." spring to mind.  There are several reasons for this:

• There is somewhat of a disconnect between when people go birding in Mallacoota and the breeding season.  I illustrate this by plotting the % of checklists each month on eBird against the % of breeding events recorded in the COG Garden Bird Survey (with the COG data shifted forward 1 month - eg COG data for February shown against January - to allow for differences in seasonality between the Tablelands and the Coast).

• For many types of breeding event - especially nest related events - it can take a lot of time and effort to locate the event.  This investment is less likely to be made - or be able to be made - when a visitor to an area.
• The dense vegetation common around Mallacoota makes it much harder to spot nests - or even things such as feeding chicks - than the more open woodlands and gardens of Canberra.
• Some species nest where few/no birders go.  For example I have heard rumours that Caspian Terns have nested on the Goodwin Sands but there seem to be no breeding records for the species until high water levels in Bottom Lake meant this site wasn't available, leading to a Caspian Tern being observed on a nest near the Mouth. 

Records x Species

It's a bit difficult to present tables in a blog, with my low levels of HTML coding ability, but hopefully you'll be able to see what is going on in this one!   You can also select the table and copy/paste it into a spreadsheet if you are keen to analyse the data.  I have attempted to do some basic analyses below.

BREEDING BIRD ATLAS CODE	NY	NE	FS	ON	CN	NB	C	CF	FY	FL	DD	N	T	A	S	P	count	total
Sequence	1	2	3	4	5	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	90	91	96	97
Australasian Figbird										2							1	2
Australasian Pipit											1						1	1
Australian King-Parrot										1							1	1
Australian Magpie										1							1	1
Australian Shelduck							1										1	1
Australian Wood Duck										4		1					2	5
Beautiful Firetail										1							1	1
Bell Miner							1										1	1
Black Swan		1								5							2	6
Brown Gerygone	2									1							2	3
Brown Thornbill			2														1	2
Brown-headed Honeyeater					1												1	1
Buff-banded Rail										1							1	1
Caspian Tern				2													1	2
Chestnut Teal							1		2	1							3	4
Common Blackbird								1		1							2	2
Common Bronzewing												2					1	2
Crested Pigeon									1								1	1
Crested Tern									1								1	1
Crimson Rosella												1					1	1
Dusky Woodswallow	1																1	1
Eastern Spinebill				1		1											2	2
Eastern Whipbird											1						1	1
Eastern Yellow Robin				1					1	2							3	4
Emu										2							1	2
Golden Whistler								1									1	1
Grey Teal							1			2							2	3
Hooded Plover		1		2						1							3	4
Jacky winter										1							1	1
Leaden Flycatcher	1																1	1
Lewin's Honeyeater									2	3							2	5
Little Tern				1													1	1
Little Wattlebird									1	1							2	2
Masked Lapwing				1						4				1			3	6
Mistletoebird															1		1	1
Musk Lorikeet												1					1	1
New Holland Honeyeater					1				1								2	2
Pacific Black Duck										3							1	3
Red Wattlebird	3			1						3			2				4	9
Red-browed finch				1					1	1							3	3
Red-capped Plover				1			1				2						3	4
Rose Robin						1											1	1
Rufous Fantail	4								1								2	5
Rufous Whistler									1	1							2	2
Scarlet Honeyeater	1																1	1
Silver Gull										1			1				2	2
Silvereye								1	1			1					3	3
Striated Thornbill										1							1	1
Superb Fairywren									1	2							2	3
Superb Lyrebird							5										1	5
Welcome Swallow				5						1							2	6
Whistling Kite	1			1													2	2
White-browed Scrubwren		1															1	1
White-fronted Chat														1			1	1
White-headed Pigeon					1		2			2							3	5
White-naped Honeyeater				2					1	2							3	5
White-winged Chough				2													1	2
Willie Wagtail	1									2							2	3
Wonga Pigeon				2													1	2
Yellow-faced Honeyeater																1	1	1

Reports by Type of Breeding activity

• NY - Nest with Young: 14 records covering 8 species.  Reasonably easy as the chicks are frequently noisy and the parents can be seen flying to and from the nest.
• NE - Nest with eggs: 3 records covering 3 species.  Very difficult as the birds are typically very quiet on a nest and it is usually very difficult 
• to see into the nest; and
• you often can't know what is under a sitting bird.
• FS - Faecal Sac: 2 records for the 1 species.  An adult bird seen flying with a small white sac of unpleasantness shows they are tidying up after junior.  A very infrequently used code!
• ON - Occupied Nest: 23 records for 14 species.  Again reasonably easy.  Typically found by chance or by observing an adult fly into a nest site to change guard.  Overcomes the difficulties mentioned under NE
• CN - Carrying Nesting material:  3 records for 3 species. Self explanatory but used surprisingly infrequently.
• NB - Nest Building:  2 records for 2 species. the next stage on from CN, and again self explanatory.
• CF - Carrying Food: 3 records for 3 species.  Most bird species eat food where they find it, so if seen carrying the food around they are generally doing so to feed a chick. This is not the case for raptors which usually carry their prey to a perch for consumption and some insectivores will fly a short distance to munch (which can usually be observed and thus discounted as a breeding record).  Again surprisingly few records.
• FY - Feeding Young: 15 records for 13 species,  This category is a bit of a mixed bag since some species may still be feeding young a fair distance from the nest site.  See note in preamble about COG type DY
• FL - recently FLedged young.  53 records for 29 species.  A bird which has recently left the nest but is not yet fully independent.  A somewhat subjective category dependent on the observer's judgement as to the development of the chick.  With ducks it is typically used until the young fly for the first time. (and in some species - eg Australian Wood Duck; Pacific Black Duck - where the young walk to water from a nest hollow they may be a considerable distance from the nest site).  Adding to the complexity, in a mixed flock of ducks it can be difficult to sort out to which species the ducklings relate!
• C - Courtship, Display, Copulation  12 records from 7 species.  5 records are (not surprisingly) from Superb Lyrebird.  It is surprising considering the number of Satin Bowerbirds in the area and the noisiness of the bower display that there are no breeding records for that species.
• DD - Distraction Displays: 4 records from 3 species.  Typically used by shorebirds (one view is that it is such 'dotty' displays that led to the name Dotterel being applied to some small plovers) but in my data set also recorded for Australasian Pipit and Eastern Whipbird.
• N - visiting possible Nest site: 6 records for 5 species.  Typically a member of a hollow nesting species seen sticking its head into or out of a hole in a tree.  Thus records from Musk Lorikeet, Crimson Rosella and Australian Wood Duck are expected.  I am intrigued about such records for Common Bronzewing (where the completed nest is rudimentary at best) and Silvereye.
• T and A - Territorial Defence and Agitated Behaviour are both marginal indicators of breeding and most of the species concerned are all rather inclined to go postal at the best of times!

Comments about selected species.

This is a somewhat subjective set of comments about some of the species recorded breeding in the area.  I have generally not repeated remarks about some species made earlier.

• Australian Figbird: I had thought this species to be quite unusual in the area.  However it has the 97th highest number of records (and tends to come in Summer when the figs are available) so 2 records are not surprising  As both records were on the same day my guess is 2 people came to twitch the species for their Victorian lists and saw the same bird.
• Australian Wood Duck: 5 records, but only one of them visiting a nest site.  
• Black Swan: 6 records.  Cygnets are very obvious and could be recorded for several weeks.
• Chestnut Teal: 4 records.  In view of the number of Teal in the area and the ease of observing ducklings I am surprised at the low number of breeding records.
• Eastern Yellow Robin: a very common species, and as with most 'Robin' species the recently fledged young are rather strange in appearance, and thus draw attention to themselves.
• Hooded Plover 4 records.  The famous and well studied birds of the beaches.  Their breeding activities enter the scientific record through other processes, but I am surprised that more eBird users haven't reported breeding for these lovely little birds: I suspect it is the dis-junction between breeding season and twitching season!
• Red Wattlebird 9 records.  Good to see a relatively high number of records.
• Welcome Swallow 6 records, of which 5 are Occupied Nest.  Easy to spot as they nest near/on houses,
• White-headed Pigeon: 5 records (not including the one pictured above).  A recent and succesful arrival in the area.