rosella and owl ID please

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stevehapp
stevehapp's picture
rosella and owl ID please

I am having a bit of bother identifying a couple of birds.
Location is Euroley bridge on the Murrumbidgee River, near Leeton in NSW.
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1. I am thinking Crimson Rosella, or Yellow Rosella, race flaveolus. There seem to be a lot of mixed colours or hybridisation out west as compared to the coast.
Amongst parrots and rosellas, I mean. Is there a general term for rosellas, parrots, cockatoos, and galahs ?
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2. Also seen near Euroley Bridge, this owl was being harrassed by some white-winged choughs. I flushed him out of a low tree(unwittingly) and he flew up into a river gum.
I know nothing about owls and I think this is the first one I have ever seen.
Distribution wise it could be a southern boobook or a barking owl. I am thinking it is an immature bird, but cannot id it from my book. It looks more like an immature powerful owl, but I think they are not in this area..
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cheers,
steve

raysimula
raysimula's picture

The Rosella is a Crimson Rosella (race flaveolus). They live mainly along the Murray/ Darling basin. There is another called Crimson Rosella (race adelaidae) Which is redder in colour than you'rs and looks something like a cross between normal Crimson and race flaveolus.
As for you'r owl, I agree it looks to me like a Juvenile Powerful Owl but I'm not sure of that.
Ray

stevehapp
stevehapp's picture

Thanks ray,
I have been reading up on the sub-species of the crimson rosella and they said basically what you have just posted.
Being a coastal bloke, I am unfamiliar with most inland birds. :)
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Thanks very much for your response.
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cheers,
steve

DenisWilson
DenisWilson's picture

Hi Steve
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Re the Crimson Rosella debate, some people, notably Dick Schodde, formerly of CSIRO Wildlife, argue that Crimson (blue cheeked) Rosellas form a "cline" - a range, which is more or less continuous, if you consider the geographical sources of the various specimens. I have seen him spread out two full tables of specimens taken from their full range, and argue that they all "clines" of the one species.

At any point along the range, you can describe them as a particular sub-species, or race, but when you see them all spread out like that (both species) can be argued as having a full range of gradual variations - and that at any point, there will be interbreeding of the variants.
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In my opinion it is not really worth while "fussing" about exactly which race or subspecies you are looking at, as if the "type specimen" of Crimson Rosella (race flaveolus) came from 100 Km further up river or downriver from where your bird was, it might be ever so subtly different.
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Interestingly, the Eastern Rosella group (white cheeked) Rosellas are just as varied.
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I am not talking about "hybridisation" between species, although that is regularly reported as well - most recently, last week on this forum.
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"Birdpedia - Australia" has the following notes re "races" of the Crimson Rosella.
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Subspecies
Seven subspecies, nigrescens, northern Queensland from Cairns to south of Bowen, and west to Ravenshoe, elegans, eastern and southern Australia from Blackall Ranges, southern Queensland through NSW, ACT, eastern and southern Victoia, west to around Kingston SE, south-eastern SA, melanoptera, Kangaroo Island, flaveolus, riverine inland southern NSW, east to Yass and Gundagai, along the Murray River in northern Vic and south to Mannum in SA, fleurieuensis, Fleurieu Peninsula, SA adelaide, Mt Lofty Ranges, SA from just south of Adelaide north to about Clare, and subadelaidae, southern Flinders Ranges, south to near Gladstone.
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Subspecies fall into three distinct groups, which have at times been considered distinct species. They are:
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CRIMSON TYPES ('Crimson Rosella', nominate elegans and subspecies nigriscens and melatoptera)
YELLOW TYPES ('Yellow Rosella', flaveolus)
ADELAIDE TYPES ('Adelaide Rosella', fleurieuensis, adelaidae and subadelaidae)
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http://www.birdpedia.com/au/bi.dll/bipu02?m=006&id505=M000001535
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Hope that helps.
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Your Owl looks to me like a Boobook.
Photos of Powerful Owls nearly always seem to have them standing much more upright than your bird - which looks very "stumpy" to me, and crouched over. It looks like many Boobooks I have seen. Size is the best guide - the Boobook really is quite short. Also, consider the habitat. I would say Leeton is way out of range of the Powerful Owl, which is a bird of tall wet forests - basically along the "Great Dividing Range".

Cheers
Denis

stevehapp
stevehapp's picture

Thanks Dennis for you erudite response. :)
Its even more complex about the rosellas than I even imagined! But your theory of geographical morphing seems perfectly reasonable to me.
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re the owl, I was tending towards the boobook myself, so you have confirmed my slightly educated guess!
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while i am here, I have a raptor from Leeton on the ground. I am sure it is a swamp harrier as that is what was flying around just before i shot this photo. But i cannot find many shots of verifiable indentifying photos of a swamp harrier on the ground. This one is in its first year if it is the same as the one up in the air.
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cheers,
steve

magpie
magpie's picture

I would never have guessed that was a crimson rosella.. i would have said eastern rosella for sure.

DenisWilson
DenisWilson's picture

Hi Steve.
Your Swamp Harrier looks very dark, but the high stance on long legs is right, for they need to be able to see above long grass and rushes, etc.
Clearly it is not a Spotted Harrier.
Cheers
Denis

DenisWilson
DenisWilson's picture

Hi Magpie
I agree it does not look like a conventional (red) Crimson Rosella, but the inland ones, along the tall Eucalypts along the inland rivers, tend to be yellow. The old bird books called them "Yellow Rosella". But the blue cheeks are the constant factor.
The Eastern Rosellas, even the "Pale Headed Rosella" in Queensland, are in the other main grouping, and they all have white cheek patches.
Cheers
Denis

stevehapp
stevehapp's picture

Thanks Dennis,
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I am reasonably sure it is a swamp harrier and that it is a juvenile, which are darker. I spotted the lighter spot on the rump in a photo of "her" from behind in the air.
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magpie,
yeah what dennis said about the blue cheeks, that is a dead giveaway of the various crimson rosellas.
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cheers,
steve

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