Any day now, the rainforests of the Daintree will resound of the arrival of the Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher Tanysiptera sylvia.
They are very punctual, arriving in the last week of October, first week of November, each year. The males industriously excavate upwardly climbing tunnels into terrestrial termite mounds and upon breaching the internal cavity, rely upon the resident colony of termites to congeal the inner wall of the would-be incubating chamber. The female kingfisher will reject the proposal unless the termites have played their part.
As we walk past these mounds over the summer months, kingfisher chicks can be heard inside calling for food. When they ultimately fledge, the parent birds return to PNG, leaving the abandoned juveniles in a state of distress. For about three weeks they hang around the nesting site, before heading off to New Guinea on their own; having never been before.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
Don’t know if you English speaking people have an special name for birds that arrive punctually, like Neil’s kingsfishers, but we call them ” datebirds” and birds that arrive depending on the weather we call ” weatherbirds”!
” Where there’s bee, there is a beeater, where there is a fish there is a kingsfisher”, something that I heard on the telly regarding predators in the environment.
Fascinated to read about the nesting habits of Paradise kingfishers. I wondered whether the chicks would be fed on the termites which were so conveniently close, or whether their use was only for providing the nest.
Fact: Every decade has been warmer than the previous decade since the 40’s.
Fact: In Australia, 2009 was the second hottest year on record. Worldwide it was the 4th hottest year on record.
Fact: Man is changing the climate of Earth in many ways, not just gas emissions, and the effects are poorly understood. You can’t spew millions of tonnes of methane and CO2 into the atmosphere, change the landscape forever, including cutting down millions of acres of forests, and then expect everything to be OK, no change required. Earth and its life has been evolving for 4 billions of years and life has helped regulate the perturbations in the climate due to solar cycles, seismic activity, and asteroids. We are heading into the unknown with this, just like a ship of fools. And you are not helping. Hope you feel good about yourself Jennifer.
Where have all the Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfishers gone? There is an area west of Mackay that previously catered for many a successful breeding season, but this has been changing for the worst. In fact, during the past two seasons I have not been able to find a single successful nesting in this area and the number of birds spending time there is also very minimal. Something has (or is) happening but what? Hopefully birds are successfully nesting elsewhere locally??
The 2011 season is well underway. In the Mackay district, all previously patronised haunts of the kingfisher were checked on the 3rd and again on the 16th of January. More questions have been raised from these inspections. In one area that was affected the most by Cyclone Ului (March 2010) all three known active nesting mounds there still contained last seasons nest tunnels and chambers. Of the other known breeding areas, mounds were in better condition with the previous season’s activity filled in in most cases. From approximately thirty mounds checked (Jan 3rd & 16th) just one mound was located with two new-born chicks (Jan 16th). Has the extremely wet November and December of 2010 detered the kingfishers from nesting in our once popular local areas? What causes termites to (seemingly) vacate previously healthy looking mounds? Does anyone have any answers?