Australasian Figbird (family group)

Description:

Another "first encounter" for me. This is a little family group of Australasian Figbirds, and they drew my attention with their simple call; one that I was not familiar with. The first photo is of the male, and the second, the female. A juvenile also appears in the other photos. Males have bare, red skin around the eye, contrasting against a black crown and grey neck and throat. The remainder of the body is olive-green, except for a white under-tail area. Females have grey skin around the eye and lack distinctive head markings. They are brown-green above and dull-white below, streaked with brown. Both sexes have a blackish bill. There are two distinct colour forms of the males of this species. Males north of Proserpine in Queensland have a yellow front. This spotting is of the southern Queensland variety.

Habitat:

The Figbird lives in rainforests and wet sclerophyll forests, but is often found in urban parks and gardens, particularly those with figs and other fruit-producing trees. That was certainly the case here. The three birds were feeding on the fruit of an Alexandra Palm (Archontophoenix alexandrae), a Queensland native. http://weeds.brisbane.qld.gov.au/weeds/a... This is a busy commercial area.

Notes:

The Australasian Figbird is often mistaken for a similar species - the Olive-backed Oriole (Oriolus sagittatus) - http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/... Figbirds have a blackish bill, whereas the Olive-backed Oriole has a reddish bill. This species also lacks the Figbird's bare eye skin and has red eyes (adults). The Figbird also tends to be more gregarious than the orioles, living semi-colonially.