Bird of the Week: Golden Whistler 21 May 2021
I reckon I hear this bird calling more often than any other in Mallacoota. The breeding season song is not their only call, and they seem to call all year. They have a range of single whistles that they repeat monotonously “sweep! Sweep!”, and a bunch of variations of the tchee-tchee-tchee-tuwhit! Most of the songs finish with an up note, not quite a whipcrack, but almost.
Great videos including the calls, by Michael Barnett & Gregory Storer:
https://youtu.be/e43x7h3FQk0
https://www.facebook.com/553710148/videos/10156634481220149/
and here’s another great one by Darilyn & Les Goldsmith: https://www.facebook.com/1525053898/videos/10219481233851232/
Like most of our whistlers, they have a tendency to stop on a branch for longer than most birds. They fly in, prop and stay quite still, then dart out to grab a caterpillar. This habit makes them easier to see and identify than the fast-moving honeyeaters and thornbills that share the habitat with them.
The male is distinctive, brilliant. But he can be frustratingly well-hidden in thick Blackwoods or Boobiallas at times. When you hear a big whistling song coming from the same place, for ages, mid-high in a small tree, but can’t see the bird no matter how you try, think “whistler”. He’s there, you just need a different angle.
The females and young birds behave the same as the males, but are harder to see as they are brown-grey.
Adult females over 2 years old have a black bill, mostly grey wings with sometimes a little edging of yellow-olive. They are greyish brown everywhere else, paler on the throat and belly and under the tail. They have a tiny patch of yellow on the vent (the underside of the rump) but sometimes its so tiny that you can’t see it.
I think the best way to identify them from other brownish-grey birds is that they have no distinctive features whatsoever! Its more the combination of shape, size, colour, bill that helps. Jacky Winter has white outer tail feathers, very obvious when they fly, Brown Gerygone has a white eyebrow, Grey Shrike-thrush has a brown saddle.
Young Golden Whistlers start out very orange-rufous, but only for a few days after leaving the nest. Immature birds look like females but have a pale brownish bill, and rich rufous on the wings.
LISTEN TO THE CALLS: https://wildambience.com/wildlife-sounds/australian-golden-whistler/
Scroll through to see lots of great pics here: https://ebird.org/species/golwhi1?siteLanguage=en_AU
Details: Golden Whistler Pachycephala pectoralis youngi
Location: Eastern Australia from the Nullabor SA through VIC, NSW TAS and south-eastern and north coastal QLD. Our subspecies youngi most of Vic and NSW.
Conservation status/learn more: https://www.birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/golden-whistler
Thanks to Michael Barnett & Gregory Storer, Rob Clay, John Hutchison and Martin Butterfield for your wonderful pics and information.
Mallacoota Birds 