This month I have been researching more about the five fascinating birds that you will find in the pages of the Adamson Adventures, Book 4. With each month that passes I am progressing one step closer to the release date next year. The manuscript has now been edited while I have been writing the information pages for the back of the book. I am excited to share with you some of the pages I have designed, but that will remain a secret for just a little longer.

Last month I shared with you information on Five Fascinating Animals of Tasmania, this month it is the turn of the birds. You will notice however, that I have titled this birds of Australia not just Tasmania, because some of these are also found on the mainland. Some information on these birds can be seen on my author pages on Facebook and Instagram where I shared my sketches, but you will find more fun facts here.

Swift Parrot

The Swift Parrot is a small, beautifully coloured migratory bird that is critically endangered. It is easy to see with its bright green feathers that cover most of its body, with red and yellow feathers that are found around the face, throat, and tips of the wings. It also has a long purplish-red tail. However, it is often confused with birds of similar colouring such as the musk lorikeet, green and eastern rosella and even the rainbow lorikeet. It nests in the Summer in Tasmania and migrates north to mainland Australia in the Winter. They mainly eat nectar and pollen from specific eucalypt flowers but will also eat insects, fruit, berries, larvae and seeds.

With the continued deforestation of their habitat both in Tasmania and on the Australian mainland, swift parrots are listed as critically endangered as their numbers continue to significantly decrease. With less than 750 Swift parrots left in the wild, it has been voted by conservationists and public alike as the 2023 Australian Bird of the Year. Hopefully this will help draw attention to its devastating situation.

The swift parrot is a migratory bird that is endangered.

Swift Parrot sketch — My sketch of the swift parrot.

Lyrebird

Do you know where the lyrebird got its name? It is said that the tail was thought to resemble that of the musical instrument, the lyre. The lyre is a hand-held stringed instrument much like a harp. It has two curved arms and a cross bar that joins the arms, with the strings connected from the body to the crossbar. If you look at the tail feathers of the lyrebird, they are remarkably comparable. However, it is only the male that has the superb longer tail that forms the shape of a lyre. The females have a much plainer tail. While the younger males take three to four years to grow their magnificent lyre tail.

The lyrebird is quite musical and very clever, it has the ability imitate any bird sound it hears in the forest but will also mimic any other unusual sounds it hears, such as car alarms, camera shutters, video game noises, workmen and their chainsaws and even dogs barking. The lyrebird composes songs from all these amazing sounds and the songs can last up to twenty minutes. A male lyrebird will compose a long and complex song to attract a female, while the female will whistle a lyrical tune to warn other females to stay away from her territory.

These birds roost in trees at night, then forage on the rainforest floor during the day. They do have the ability to fly, but rarely bother unless they feel they are in imminent or immediate danger.

Wedge-tailed Eagle

Although widespread throughout Australia, the Wedge-tailed Eagle is threatened in Tasmania due to habitat loss and persecution. These are the largest birds of prey, (raptors) in Australia and while their main source of food is rabbits and other small mammals, they have been known to take lambs, hence large numbers of these eagles were once shot or poisoned. Since their near extinction in Tasmania, the Australian government has now banned all hunting of wedge-tailed eagles in all States of the country. They do prefer to prey on carrion, (the carcass of dead animals) but will also swoop in to catch live food. Wedge-tailed eagles will mate for life, and they tend to maintain a nest in one area, usually in the highest tree.

Even though the wedge-tailed eagle does not have the largest or heaviest body of all the eagles, it does surprisingly have the largest wingspan at over two metres, (six and a half feet). Other birds are often threatened by the predatory nature of the wedge-tailed eagle and will join to chase them away from their nests. Unlike most birds the female is larger than the male, but the pair share duties such as hunting, territory patrol and feeding of their young. Most eagles will only produce one egg at a time, but in the case where there are two eggs, usually only the strongest will survive.

Masked Owl

The Masked Owl is found all around coastal regions of Australia. It is listed as threatened throughout the mainland but endangered in Tasmania. It is a bird of prey that as a nocturnal animal, hunts in the evening for small mammals. They swoop from trees looking for prey on the ground, from as small as insects, to larger animals like rats, rabbits, possums and even bandicoots and gliders. Sometimes it will also hunt other birds like kookaburras, magpies, sparrows and even chickens.

Like the wedge-tailed eagle, the female masked owl is larger than the male and as such will hunt for larger prey. Masked owls like other raptors, will regurgitate parts of their prey such as bones, claws, and fur in forms of pellets. Instead of a gentle hoot that you might expect from an owl, this one makes quite a loud screech. However, it makes up for that noise when swooping for prey as its wings have evolved to be completely silent.

Nests are usually in rock cavities, or holes in trees along cliff edges. They lay between two to four eggs that are incubated for five to six weeks. Both parents will continually feed their young every hour for ten to twelve weeks until the young are ready to fly. They will remain with their parents for a further few weeks as they are taught to hunt for themselves.

Demon Duck of Doom

Okay, I know what you are thinking, the demon duck of doom is extinct. So technically it doesn’t belong here among the other birds. However, it is unique to Australia, and thanks to all the readers who wanted to know more at the end of Fossil Frenzy, book 3, the DDD makes another appearance in book 4.

These avian dinosaurs have a scientific name of Dromornis planei, and were also formerly known as Bullockornis planei. It was a huge flightless bird that roamed an area in the Northern Territory of Australia called Bullock Creek during the late Pleistocene epoch, (50,000 years ago) to as far back as the Eocene epoch, (55 million years ago) that are all part of the Cenozoic era. Close relatives of the bird were also found in Queensland.

Nicknamed the Demon Duck of Doom because of its close relationship to ducks of today, it was originally thought to be related to emus, cassowaries, and ostriches. However, on the discovery of further detail of the head and bill, it became evident that this creature was in fact closer genetically to ducks and geese. Even more recently research has suggested that it could even be related to chickens and turkeys.

The bird was heavily built with a long, thick neck, enormous legs, a head as big as a horse and a huge, curved bill. Interestingly, it is the curious nature of the bill that has caused much debate among scientists as to whether the Demon Duck of Doom was a herbivore or carnivore. It has been thought that the bill was ideal for cropping and breaking tough plant material which is backed by the discovery of gastroliths (small stones) that would be swallowed to help with digestion of plant material. While other researchers believe that the beak was more suited to tearing meat and crushing bones. The beak does not however, have a sharp tip which is found on all other birds of prey, nor is the beak seen to be strong enough for a meat-eater as even though the beak is deep, it is thin.

A photo I took of a replica of the Demon Duck of Doom at the discovery Centre in the Daintree Rainforest, in far North Queensland.

Have you learnt something new today?

Do you enjoy reading fun facts about little known animals and birds?

I hope you have found these articles on animals of Tasmania and birds of Australia fascinating.

Keep an eye out for more exciting information on book 4 in the Adamson Adventures coming next year.