BIRDING THE ZOO

Today my family and I travelled to the Melbourne Zoo. We were there so my sister and I could see the captive animals, but I was also keeping a look out for the many native birds that hang around the zoo. 

Throughout the zoo, Indian mynas, white-plumed honeyeaters, rainbow lorikeets and house sparrows were common, as well as bell miners. As most of you probably know, there is a colony of bell miners in the zoo's carpark and in the Outback Area: this colony seems to have extended throughout most of the zoo, which is odd as bell miners don't normally 'extend' territories. 

A greater comorant, a common sight at Pelican Lake

Nankeen night herons have been recorded roosting at the lake for a long time

The main birding spot within the zoo is Pelican Lake. This lake is next to the orang-utan exhibit, and has captive Pelicans. However, wild greater cormorant, dusky moorhen and Nankeen night heron also frequent the lake. On other occasions I have also seen chestnut teal, Pacific black duck and little pied cormorant here. The night herons have been recorded roosting in the area quite some time ago, and the zoo's lake remains one of the best places in Melbourne to see them. There are also captive eastern snake-necked turtles in the lake. The trails near it are also an OK spot to see song thrush and blackbird hiding in shrubs, though I didn't see any today.

A bell miner perched on a branch at the Outback Area

Two female Australian wood ducks in the Outback pond

The Outback area is an area containing various Australian marsupials and 'bush' birds: wombats, koalas, kangaroos and wallabies are exhibited, as well as a variety of bird species in a large aviary. The eucalypts all around the Outback area make it good for honeyeaters and lorikeets. Bell miners are always everywhere in the area, and both species of wattlebird, as well as most of the commoner honeyeaters, can be seen here as well. A big surprise was spotting an Eastern spinebill in shrubs outside the aviary: I haven't seen this species in the zoo area before. The eucalypts of the Outback area can attract rainbow lorikeets, musk lorikeets, white-plumed honeyeaters, red wattlebirds, bell miners and little wattlebirds. A large pond in the Outback area attracts many ducks: grey teal, Australian wood duck, chestnut teal and Pacific black duck can easily be seen. On one occasion I saw a wandering whistling-duck there, though it was probably a captive bird. On this occasion the whistling-duck was gone and a blue-billed duck was there. Most likely these were both captive birds.

There isn't much else to see in terms of birding the zoo: though rarer species sometimes visit the Outback area in summer (at one point an olive-backed oriole was supposedly nesting in this section), and Eurasian tree sparrow are sometimes seen around the Japanese Garden and end of the 'Asian Forest' section.