Week 8: Crakes to Lapwings

Day 31: Inaccessible Island rail - Atlantisia rogersi

Lonely island

Inaccessible Island is a small, extinct volcano jutting out of the South Atlantic in the Tristan da Cunha archipelago. The island was named for the failure of explorers to penetrate the land beyond the beach. The remoteness and size of the island have precluded the colonisation of terrestrial mammals, reptiles, amphibians and butterflies. However, millions of seabirds breed on the island in addition to the Tristan thrush (Turdus eremita) and the endemic Inaccessible Island finch (Nesospiza acunhae) and rail.

The Inaccessbile Island rail holds the record for the smallest extant flightless bird with a length of 17 cm and weighing just 30 g. This title is partly a result of luck as Inaccessible Island has never been colonised by rats or cats, invasive aliens responsible for the extinction of many flightless island birds such as the Stephens Island wren in New Zealand and countless crake and rail species. I am glad that this species has survived not only because because too many relatives have been lost because of man but also as it is a very cute little fluffball.

Day 32: Giant coot - Fulica gigantea

Cootzilla

I had not realised that there was a coot species of this size. Weighing up to 2.3 kg, the giant coot dwarfs the rest of the genus with the familiar Eurasian coot (Fulica atra) weighing between 585 g and 1,100 g. It is also the second largest of the Rallidae after the New Zealand Takahe. The giant coot is considered functionally flightless in adulthood so it is apparently yet another rallid on the trajectory to true flightlessness. 

The giant coot lives on the Altiplano, a large plateau in the Andes. There it inhabits the high altitude lakes, feeding on aquatic vegetation. It shares two prominent features with other coots. Firstly its huge feet are fringed with flaps of skin. This spreads the weight of the bird allowing them to walk on not-so-solid substrates such as mud where other birds might sink. The second feature is the frontal shield, a fleshy plate on the forehead which provides protection during foraging and fighting and indicates the health of the bird through bright colours in a manner similar to the sexual selection we have encountered before.

Day 33: Bush stone-curlew - Burhinus grallarius

Are you looking at me?!

This fantastic bird is one of the ten stone-curlews or thick-knees (Burhinidae) found in dry regions around the world. Stone-curlews stand out for me because of their slightly creepy appearance with their huge yellow eyes staring out from their petrified bodies. 

I saw numerous bush stone-curlews on my travels in Queensland and this is the only occasion thus far when my own photo is good enough to use (ignore the speed-bump)! I was first made aware of them from eerie, nocturnal wailing in the suburbs of Cairns. A few days later, a trip to James Cook University introduced me to a group that lurked in the empty car park, staring down passers-by like criminal youths. Perhaps the most surreal encounters of all came at the end of my travels. By this point my birding hat was mostly removed whilst I enjoyed some of the more touristy aspects of Queensland so I was surprised indeed to see the stone-curlews appear out of the night to dart around the streets and bars of Cairns.

As well as the bush stone-curlew I also saw a couple of beach stone-curlews (Esacus magnirostris). This species is probably as close as stone-curlews get to behaving like conventional waders which form the bulk of the Charadriiformes ('plover-shap'), conventionally known as the shore-birds. This is a large and diverse order of birds which, by-and-large, are associated with the water's edge. The Charadriiformes can be split into six suborders: the small, terrestrial buttonquails (Turnici), the strange stone-curlews and sheathbills (Chionidi), the lapwings and plovers (Charadrii), the sandpipers and snipe (Scolopaci), the aberrant waders (Thinocori) and the gulls and their allies (Lari).  

Day 34: Pied avocet - Recurvirostra avosetta

For birds, for people, forever

The avocet is famous in this country as the symbol of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the largest wildlife conservation organisation in Europe. With over a million members and 200 nature reserves in the UK the RSPB has been pivotal for wildlife (not just bird) conservation and awareness raising among the British public. Certainly it has been important for me, managing many of my favourite nature reserves and introducing me to some brilliant birds. I have quoted their older motto above 'For birds, for people, forever' as it is always the one I remember and the one that really emphasises their purpose.

The RSPB began as a protest group in 1889, founded by Emily Williamson to campaign against the use of kittiwake and great crested grebe feathers for clothing. The Plumage League (as it was called) soon merged with the Fur and Feather League to become the RSPB. This organisation began to gain popularity, at first with female fashion protesters and then with men before earning its Royal Charter in 1904. Since then it has grown from strength to strength buying land, increasing conservation and influencing the law to protect our British birds.

The avocet symbolises the work of the RSPB after the successful project to see breeding avocets return to the east coast of Britain. RSPB Minsmere was a reserve established in 1947 around the anti-invasion, coastal flooding of Suffolk which created its famous reedbeds. The avocets came soon after and now Minsmere is one of the RSPB's flagship reserves. The avocet was approved as the emblem for the RSPB tie in 1955 and then in 1970 this fantastic bird came to grace the main logo.

The pied avocet is one of four avocet species noted for their long, up-turned bills (recurv-i-rostra). They use their bills to sift though the water in sweeping motions that catch marine invertebrates. They are closely related to the long-legged stilts (Himantopus) and the ubiquitous oystercatchers (Haematopus) in the plover suborder Charadrii.

Week 7: Buzzards to Rails (with 2 bonus birds!)

Day 25: Galapagos hawk – Buteo galapagoensis

Iguanas, be afraid

The Galapagos hawk is one of the many species endemic to that famous archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. Like some other Galapagos species, the hawk varies in size across the islands with males weighing 844g on Marchena Island but a much larger 1,137g on Española Island. This may reflect the resource availability of the different islands. The hawk has a variety of food sources, making use of the unusual fauna of the islands. Prey includes rodents, lizards and snakes with the bonus of turtle hatchlings. In addition they can take larger prey such as the marine iguana.

As with the penguins, humans were an unknown entity when they arrived in the Galapagos islands and so the Galapagos hawks had not evolved a fear of man. Charles Darwin observed that ‘a gun is here almost superfluous; for with the muzzle I pushed a hawk out of the branch of a tree’. This high human tolerance has no doubt hindered the species resulting in low population levels, a result shared by many Galapagos species.

The Galapagos hawk is one of many Buteo species which are generally called buzzards in the Old World and hawks in the New World. As raptors go, buzzards are very average. I do not mean that in the pejorative sense more that their traits are intermediate of other raptors being medium sized and with unremarkable flying or hunting ability. That being said, their generalism allows them to pervade habitats around the world (including the remote Galapagos Islands) as there are always small critters to be eaten!

Day 26: Greater spotted eagle – Aquila chrysaetos

Monarch of the glen

The golden eagle is easily one of the most well-known birds of prey. It is a huge predator which uses its large talons to seize hares and marmots from the crags. To sustain themselves and their chicks, pairs require large territories up to 200km² in size. Historically the golden eagle had a Holarctic distribution however their presence is now patchier due to the persecution of framers and land-owners who fear the predation of their livestock. Despite this there have been positive aspects to their relationship with humans with golden eagles being a prized bird in falconry.

In many ways the genus Aquila is like the big brother of Buteo as they are a fairly widespread genus with many species occupying similar niches around the world. The obvious difference is the size with the golden eagle weighing over three times as much as the common buzzard (Buteo buteo) . Eagle as a term is a catch-all for large raptors that actively hunt (as opposed to scavenging vultures). Closer examination reveals that some eagles are relatively unrelated to others. 

The golden eagle and the genus Aquila could be called the ‘true eagles’ and they are one of the largest genera. Another large genus is the sea eagles Haliaeetus who, as the name suggests, have a more aquatic ecology feeding predominantly on fish. They include the native white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus ), the colossal Steller’s sea eagle (Haliaeetus stelleri) and the symbolic, American bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). Other large eagles such as the harpy (Harpia harpyja) and Philippine eagle (Pithecophagus philippinensis) occupy their own unrelated genera. Many of these eagle genera have convergent evolved their size making the group polyphyletic.

Day 27: Black-thighed falconet – Microhierax frigillarius

Small but deadly

The black-thighed falconet is the smallest of the Falconiformes and it is so cute! This sparrow sized hunter fits easily in the palm of my hand; in fact the name fringillarius refers to the fact that it is the same size as a Fringilla finch. But what does it eat? Well like its European relative the hobby (Falco subbuteo) falconets hawk flying insects from the air in a scaled-down re-enactment of the peregrine-pigeon chases to which we’re are more accustomed. This is no small feat as the falconet must match the speed and agility of the dragonflies which it chases through the Bornean forests.

The five Microhierax species are dwarfed in size and number of species by the genus Falco which, as it sounds, are the falcons we know and love. Falcons are adapted for aerial pursuit of volant prey (predominantly birds). The fact that few animals are able to catch birds on the wing means that when early falcons evolved this ability they hit upon a jackpot of untapped potential. As such they have diversified across the planet. As already stated, falcons don’t just eat birds with many eating large insects and the kestrels hovering over small mammals. One species, the bat falcon (Falco rufigularis), has even specialised to catch bats as they swarm around their caves in Mexico.

Together these genera comprise the Falconidae who are joined by the unusual South American, scavenging caracaras in the order Falconiformes. As explained previously, this order used to contain all birds of prey but now falcons are thought to be more closely related to parrots. Maybe looking at their beak shape it’s actually not as surprising as it was!

Day 28: Sub-desert mesite ­– Monias benschi

Madagascan oddity

After leaving one great order and before joining another there are often a collection of misfits, taxonomic curios who have evolved sometimes unusual ecologies and are traditionally very difficult to place taxonomically. The sub-desert mesite is such an example being one of three Madagascan mesite species in their own order (Mesitornithiformes). This bird looks more like a passerine such as a South American woodcreeper and it does share many passerine traits and behaviours which it has convergent evolved including the long, curved beak which it uses to pick at invertebrates and seeds.

Being Madagascan it is perhaps not surprising that this small group should be considered unusual. Madagascar split from its most recent neighbour India 88 million years ago taking with it a collection of species which would evolve into unique ferns, lemurs and elephant birds. Since then, the occasional raft had brought species across from the African continent which then began their own island radiations. It is also therefore not surprising that mesites resemble other distantly related taxa as Madagascar is full of its own convergently evolved species such as the hedgehog-like tenrecs and the feliform fossa.

Although between the Accipitriformes and and Gruiformes on our list, the most recent phylogeny places the Mesitornithiformes closer to pigeons. The other difficult-to-place species that I encountered this week include the lanky seriemas (Cariamidae) the beautiful sunbittern (Eurypygia helias) and the unusual kagu (Rhynochetos jubatus).

Day 29: Black-breasted bustard – Lissotis melanogaster

Infrequent fliers

Bustards (Otididae) are a group of large omnivorous birds that inhabit the open plains of the Old World. Like many Galliformes, male bustards are adorned with ornamental feathers. The black-bellied bustard has a striking black strip running from its neck to its tail which is contrasted with the cryptic plumage of its back. The camouflage is necessary as bustards, being reluctant fliers, are at risk of predation. They are some of the heaviest flying birds including the record-holding great bustard (Otis tarda) which bred in the UK for the first time in 170 years. Placing the bustards has been tricky with regular inclusion in the Gruiformes but the most recent taxonomy actually places them next to cuckoos in their own order Otidiformes.

Day 30: Red-necked crake – Rallina tricolor

Heard but not seen

The red-necked crake is representative of the rails and crakes (Rallidae) being a small and reclusive bird given to skulking around the undergrowth in search of food. This particular species is one which eluded me for a long time in the rainforests of Queensland. On our daily sampling regime there was one particular site which seemed to host a red-necked crake. I was made aware of this when my friend and colleague spotted it stepping silently through the leaf letter. But before I knew it, it had disappeared back into the undergrowth. I was frustrated to have missed it as I am always eager to see new birds. This frustration was increased when the same event played out again a week or so later in the same site. As the end of sampling approached I was determined to see this elusive bird but was a something to chance. But as chance would have it, eventually I did see a red-necked crake cross the forest path. Safe to say I was very pleased!

Incidentally, from listening to calls of a red-necked crake on my phone I realised that a dawn call that I heard around the hostel was actually the same species. This unusual whooping song has puzzled me for weeks and I had tried to use my app to work it out but I had not thought to look in the Rallidae. Thus, this enigmatic bird had been eluding me on two fronts until I finally saw it! Those accustomed to our own British water rails may be familiar with the ease of hearing their pig-like squeals versus the difficulty in actually laying eyes on them.

The Rallidae are a large family in the order Gruiformes. As well as the reclusive rails and crakes the Rallidae also includes the more obvious coots and moorhens, regulars of any waterway. The Gruiformes are named for their most apparent species: the cranes (Gruidae). Alas these birds are too large to be measured presently so their story must wait.