January 19th: White-eared Monarch; Spotted Quail-Thrush

I couldn't choose just one bird for this blog entry, because both of the birds listed in the title were fantastic, and I was very happy to find them. A friend of mine from Broome was in town and wanted to go out birding, so Andrew and I planned a day out in the Samsonvale/Mt Glorious area. We started the day at Lacey's Creek, about 20km north of Dayboro. It's a great little area, with a creekline at the bottom of the hills and a dirt road leading up to a great little rainforest area. On the way up the hill is woodland, and as we drove up through it, we flushed a Spotted Quail-Thrush from the road. The bird was a male and seemed to be by itself. With a bit of patience we managed to get fantastic views of the bird at the top of the ridge by the track before losing it when it came back down and crossed the road again. Spotted Quail-Thrush probably aren't that rare in the right habitat near Brisbane, however they are extremely shy and any day you see one is a good day.


We got to the rainforest at the top quite early, and were fairly disappointed with the amount of activity going on. I think it was quiet because the spot we were in was on the west side of the mountain, so hadn't received any sunlight yet. Nonetheless, we managed Brush Cuckoo and Striated Thornbill for the year in the eucalypt woodland past the rainforest area. Coming back to the car from the woodland, we heard a call none of us could place immediately, in the undergrowth on the side of the track. Some careful looks and an epiphany from Andrew led to us seeing a family of Noisy Pitta moving through the forest on the downhill slope from the road. Andrew's epiphany was that the call sounded a lot like Black-and-Crimson Pitta from Borneo; a bird we had seen and heard just a few months ago. A flurry of butterfly species made the rest of the walk interesting, and just as we were about to reach the car we flushed a White-eared Monarch from the side of the track. This is a fantastic bird for SEQ, though easy to see if you put in enough effort. The first bird we saw gave great views at the top of a Hoop Pine by the track before flying off. Closer to the car still, another pair of the monarchs flew overhead. Between the White-eared Monarch and the Spotted Quail-Thrush it had already been a great day - two more semi-difficult birds off the list early in the year.

Our birding was far from over though. Our next stop paid a visit to the Azure Kingfisher spot I photographed two juveniles fighting at a few weeks back. Sure enough, an adult-plumaged Azure Kingfisher was sitting right near the bridge over the creek, in the near-exact same spot. A quick and unsuccessful poke around the Dayboro area for Oriental Cuckoo and we moved on to Gold Scrubb Rd. Bird-wise, the site was fairly disappointing, though we did add Great Cormorant to the year list, and a few woodland species to the day list. Notable sightings here were a Purple Crow butterfly and a juvenile Eastern Brown Snake.

Our morning of birding over, we headed into Samford for lunch at the Buzz Stop Cafe, across the road from the pub. It's run by a friend of Andrew's and the food was excellent. Next time I'll try the coffee too. Once lunch was over, we made our way up the hill to Mt Glorious for some more rainforest birding. New Holland Honeyeater was predictably hanging around near the cafe at the top, an easy spot for a bird that is at the far north of its range. It was also bird #200 for the year. Maiala, just past Mt Glorious, is an old stomping ground of mine, being the first place I saw many of the rainforest birds that are common around Brisbane. It is them most reliable site for Russet-tailed Thrush in the region, and it didn't disappoint on this occasion either. Early on we missed it at the easy parts of the track, however about halfway around the circuit I spied a bird in the canopy of the rainforest, ducking into an enormous Crow's Nest Fern. Putting my bins on the bird the last thing I expected was a ground-dwelling rainforest floor specialist, but sure enough the stripey face of a Russet-tailed Thrush was poking out from behind a frond. I suspect that it has a nest in the fern, as I can think of no other reason it would be 30m off the ground. We also saw a Regent Bowerbird male flying along the trail, and a male Satin Bowerbird, dancing and singing to court a female. Logrunner was the last of the year ticks we saw at Maiala, and we moved on to our next stop, Boombana.

On the way we stopped and finally saw Bell Miners, a species we had heard a number of times already but not bothered to track down until now. At Boombana itself, we got extremely lucky and saw a flock of Barred Cuckoo-Shrikes moving through the canopy near the picnic ground. This is another uncommon species in the region and I've very glad we caught up with them early. Bellbird Grove was a short hop down the road, and we stopped briefly to look for Buff-rumped Thornbill, a bird we found quite easily off to the side of the road. While we were looking for them, we also disturbed a female Spotted Quail-Thrush, making it our second sighting of the species that day.

Our final stop for the day was JC Slaughter Falls at Mt Coot-tha. We got there on dusk to look for White-throated Nightjar, and we weren't disappointed. Not only did we get some nice low passes over the clearing we were standing in, but the bird actually landed in a dead tree by the nearby water, affording the best views I've ever had of this species. It was a great way to finish off a great day's birding, with some amazing birds and good company.

Total birds to date: 210

Photo 1: Spotted Quail-Thrush at Lacey's Creek
Photo 2: Channel-billed Cuckoo at Lacey's Creek
Photo 3: White-throated Nightjar flying at JC Slaughter Falls
Photo 4: White-throated Nightjar perching at JC Slaughter Falls