Hi everyone.
I took this video of a platypus a couple of years ago. I am wondering if anyone can have a go at identifying the bird calls that you can hear in it? This is in Gippsland...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xVmUZp0bNo
- soakes
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AAuurgh, I did it again!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xVmUZp0bNo
- soakes
soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia
I've got no idea re the bird but that is a cool sighting of a platypus.
Alison
~~~~~~
"the earth is not only for humans, but for all animals and living things."
Yes, I was pleased to have my camera with me when he popped up. I do see platypussies quite regularly in that stretch of the river, so I guess I am a bit blasé about it (but I still love it).
I can hear at least 3 birds in the background and I think one of them is a fantailed cuckoo, but I have no idea about the others. Maybe a duck.
- soakes
soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia
Hopefully someone else will help with the bird call id. There were supposed to be platypus in a creek fed dam near my house in the Dandenongs but I was never lucky enough to see any .... I'd love to be in the position to be blasé about platypus.
Alison
~~~~~~
"the earth is not only for humans, but for all animals and living things."
At the start I can hear a yellow-faced honeyeater.
The descending call is a horsfield's bronze cuckoo.
I don't know what the strange mechanical noise in the background is.
Thanks GregL.
You sound pretty sure about those IDs. I have never seen either a yellow-faced honeyeater or a bronze cuckoo around there, but that does not mean they are not there. (Actually, I have seen Lewin's honeyeaters and I *might* have also seen yellow-faced...)
I assumed the descending trill was a fantailed cuckoo, but only because I've seen them and heard them before.
The mechanical noise is my camera adjusting its focus :-/
- soakes
soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia
I think you're right, fan tailed not horsfields. fairly similar calls.
The yfh I am pretty sure of because I have lots in my garden and hear them often.
Fan-tailed Cuckoo and Horsefield's Cuckoo calls are chalk and cheese. The FTC has a descending TRILL, which is clearly audible, other than their mournful piping whistle. HBC's calls are a descending, piercing, call. Like a really sharp kind of whistle, note no trill at all. :-)
Actually, now that I've listened to it, I wouldn't put money on even a Fan-tailed Cuckoo. I cannot hear the trill clearly enough and it's a shorter call as well. FTC calls are a little longer in duration that those two at the end of your video. :-)
I was going to agree, windy. The call I have heard, whilst observing a fan-tailed cuckoo was much longer - and possibly a different tone altogether...
...but then I heard the fan-tailed cuckoo sound on this website:
http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/images/audio/cacomantis-flabelliformis.mp3
Now what do you think?
- soakes
soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia
...also, having heard the yellow-faced honeyeater call on this site:
http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/images/audio/lichenostomus-chrysops.mp3
...I think GregL is right with his suggestion.
- soakes
soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia
I had some ftc outside my house yesterday, pretty sure that is what your call was.
I've listened with good headphones and could hear a faint trill in the last call, so probably a FTC. A slightly better recording (which is not necessarily possible of course) would make it easier. Just the call seemed really short for what I am used to hearing.