Mobile Menu Open Mobile Menu Close
back back back

Publications Archive

Search by:

Foods of the harrier

Notornis, 15 (1), 23-28

A.L.K. Carroll (1968)

Article Type: Paper

A study of the stomach contents of 124 harriers showed their food to be predominantly birds, mammals and insects, occasionalIy frogs and fish. Birds taken were mainly house sparrows, blackbirds, song thrushes and skylarks. Mammals, often eaten as carrion, were rabbits, hares, Australian opossums, and hedgehogs. Insects frequently present were crickets, grasshoppers and locusts (Orthoptera) and cicadas (Hemiptera). Macerated plant material, found in many specimens, came from the gut of prey. Fresh plant fragments appeared to have been taken accidentally. The proportions of each kind of food varied seasonally but all the main categories were represented in stomachs throughout the year. More than half the specimens contained only one food, the rest a mixture of two or more.

The wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans): results of banding and observations in New South Wales coastal waters and the Tasman Sea

Notornis, 14 (2), 47-57

J.D. Gibson (1967)

Article Type: Paper

The albatrosses occurring in Australian seas are briefly enumerated noting the predominance of different species in different regions. The development of an effective method of catching wandering albatrosses at sea is mentioned, by means of which over 1700 have been banded (up to 1966). Data on weights and measurements are given. Most of the 61 recoveries of exulans have come from South Georgia, a distance of over 7000 miles, where British and American biologists have been active for several seasons. Reciprocal recoveries have also been recorded of birds banded at South Georgia. Other returns have proved that individuals from Kerguelen, Marion and Auckland Islands are present off New South Wales in winter. The high rate of retraps at the place of banding indicates a facility for precise navigation and suggests an ordered migration pattern to remembered feeding areas between breeding seasons. Tasman transects are examined and related to hydrological factors. A field method for recording plumage patterns is described and the sequence of plumage change, based on individual retraps, is discussed.
  1. Pages:
  3. 1
  4. ...
  5. 188
  6. 189
  7. 190
  8. 191
  9. 192
  10. 193
  11. 194
  12. ...
  13. 261