Longtails - Is Forshaw's new book wrong? Or is Morcombe?

[Jayburd]

Just checked - my copy of slater says yellow billed is hecks, while Simpson and day and pizzey and knight seem to be staying out of the fight, both stating the differences in subspecies but not naming names as to which is which

[mickw]

Maybe it'll be a more valued item because he made a mistake!!!
.................I'm planning to use it when I'm out searching for powerful owls. Hope it works!!
..............

No need for an app for Powerfuls Jay.......its an easy call to make yourself......we do it all the time and they boom back or come in..........I do a mean Masked owl call too.........but then again, I got a fair bit of practice listening to my ex

On the matter of Longtails.....I'm confused about who is and who isnt confused ..........working from left to right....or west to east..... nominate race is yellow billed and Hecks is red-billed....yellow bills were always plentiful up to 1985 because they were legally trapped in WA....the Hecks were very rare by comparison as they werent available from the wild legally in their home state(territory)......availability seems about equal these days

Natamambo.....if your book is a misprint it could be up there with the upside down black swan stamps

[Tiaris]

Is the Masked owl the "shreiking gin" or is that the Boobook? We hear that blood-curdling call through the night here occasionally & it sounds like a woman screaming in terror. I swear its not me getting nasty with the missus.

[MadHatter]

From my admittedly limited personal observations, I would say the degree of intergration between the two colours is quite variable from site to site. For example, the Longtails around Wyndham had yellow bills (often quite pale, almost whitish yellow) with a few individuals showing a pale coral colour, In Darwin they were a deeper yellow, tending slightly orange, but the most reddish-billed birds we saw were in Halls Creek, where they were a deeper coral-orange.
Admittedly, the Darwin and Halls Creek birds were in very small numbers compared to Wyndham, so the individual birds observed may not have been representative of the entire local population. Even so, it seemed to me that the bill colour did not transition smoothly from East to West, but was somewhat variable between local populations. I assume that different selection pressures within a local population are responsible for the observed variability.

[murf]

I wonder what Gomer's photos might show up???

[natamambo]

From my admittedly limited personal observations, I would say the degree of intergration between the two colours is quite variable from site to site. For example, the Longtails around Wyndham had yellow bills (often quite pale, almost whitish yellow) with a few individuals showing a pale coral colour, In Darwin they were a deeper yellow, tending slightly orange, but the most reddish-billed birds we saw were in Halls Creek, where they were a deeper coral-orange.
Admittedly, the Darwin and Halls Creek birds were in very small numbers compared to Wyndham, so the individual birds observed may not have been representative of the entire local population. Even so, it seemed to me that the bill colour did not transition smoothly from East to West, but was somewhat variable between local populations. I assume that different selection pressures within a local population are responsible for the observed variability.

The pair we saw at Kakadu in 2002 - drinking from a drip where out water hose connected to the tap so right beside the van - were deep yellow, certainly not Hecks type orange. We argued long and hard with tour guide who said we couldn't have seen longtails and had to reassure him we kept them for 15 years and did actually know what we were talking about.....

[tonytoast]

Too hard to follow....are Hecks red or yellow billed or both? Or is there no right answer?

[Pete Sara]

not that I am a full bottle on this , but some of the pics posted on face book on the Stgf page with black hearts aka acuticauda have a lighter bill colour to what I have in my aviary. Now supporting some of the theory mentioned here with cream bills and differant shades of yellow to red.

While at bird world for the past few months they have been selling a black heart with a cream coloured beaks , they promoted them as a special mutation but personally I think they may have been wild caught as I have heard we have a few wild caught cheastnut breatsed munias on the market and they could have come from the same place ... just a thought.. but I could be wrong.. pete

[mickw]

Is the Masked owl the "shreiking gin" or is that the Boobook? We hear that blood-curdling call through the night here occasionally & it sounds like a woman screaming in terror. I swear its not me getting nasty with the missus.

Yep, "Screaming Woman" is what the old timers called the Masked Owl.......Yes, you would possibly get Masks, Sootys, Powerfuls and maybe Barkings at your place tiaris................shreiking Gin is one of the variations of the name, though a tad less PC ....as if the other were better .....both are apt however....but I dont mean they've been turned into an app for a computer.... ......Oh Heck!...... tiaris and Jay made me get off topic.....

[Tiaris]

May be less PC Mick, but importantly it tells the history of how the species was first encountered by new settlers & timber getters in the 1800s. This is exactly how they perceived the call which at the time was not a malicious racial slur just simply an accurate depiction of what they thought they were hearing from around the campfire at night. Cleansing unPC terms sometimes totally takes away the historical context and a very real image in the mind of what the white pioneers thought they were encountering as they familiarised themselves with a new and untamed wilderness. I love these old stories of white man's first encounters with our native species. The first discovery of the Turquoise Fairy-wren by Captain White (I think) is another beauty worth looking up. Not at all scientific but nonetheless give fascinating insights into first encounters with our birds & the harshness of the unspoilt wilderness without mod cons.