Andrew Skeoch

And I think I'm hearing a honey eater that's probably down on the river flats.

We're up on the ridge here.

So I'm hearing it maybe a kilometer away.

For the next few months, I wasn't getting any honey eaters in our dawn chorus.

And then I started getting a few yellow faced honey eaters.

The brown headed started to become a little bit more vocally noticeable.

The next year, um, the yellow faced weren't so present, but what it, suddenly we'd got white ears turning up and they started forming a dawn chorus.

And that first year there was only one bird singing, but the following year there were two or three singing and they started doing this counter singing that we've talked about before, listening to each other as much as they're singing, alternating their songs.

And for the next couple of years, that population built up.

Around about 2019, having never had them here before, suddenly New Holland's turned up and they started integrating themselves into the Dawn Chorus.

And that pattern has continued right through until now.

The other bird of course we have is the red wattle bird.

So, and also the brown headed's tended to be quite, uh, quite vocal as well.

So what I'm hearing is that our Lichenostomus honey eater that is particularly noticeable is creating these beautiful patterns has changed over the years.

And this mirrors movements of populations of birds.

The bush here hasn't changed.

You know, there's no pattern to the landscape that I can pick that is mirroring this or possibly would explain this movement of birds.

And what I've concluded is that it's not the birds that are moving around and creating this dawn chorus.

It's the requirements of their dawn chorus singing that's moving the birds.

What they need to do in the dawn chorus is sing to affirm their local community, their local population, that they belong to this little group of birds that is all roosting within earshot of each other.