I drove 1100km over the last few days in search of a bird - the Rufous Bristlebird. It is found in coastal areas of southern Australia between Geelong in Victoria and Victor Harbour in South Australia.


Rufous Bristlebird by RobGeraghty, on Flickr

This is a larger crop of the same photo showing two birds in the one tree.


Rufous Bristlebirds by RobGeraghty, on Flickr

[MikeNArk]

Interesting bird, not flashy. First time I've seen this one. Good details.

[Sailor]

You're a dedicated soul, Rob. The bristle bird must be a rare beast given they effort you expended to find one! Great photo, as always, my friend.

Jer

[angkymac]

Good job on the photo. Makes it worth the long drive, if you got what you were after.
Interesting environment for it.
Angky.

[RobG]

Interesting bird, not flashy. First time I've seen this one. Good details.

Thanks! I've very glad that I took the big lens. I never got very close, even to this pair.

You're a dedicated soul, Rob. The bristle bird must be a rare beast given they effort you expended to find one! Great photo, as always, my friend.

Thanks Jer! It turns out that of all three species of Bristlebirds, this is the only one which is locally common. The other species I've seen is the Eastern Bristlebird, which is so rare that during the bushfires in 2019, a number of them were trapped and flown by helicopter to a safe location, I think along with some other endangered animals. The third species is the Western Bristlebird, which is endangered and restricted to small areas on the south coast of Western Australia. I really want to visit WA (as in Western Australia, not Washington, although I've been there too) to see some of the endemic species. I wanted to see the south-eastern corner of South Australia anyway. Honestly there's a lot of nothing natural between Adelaide and that corner, but there are some interesting things to see. I drove along beside the Coorong, a huge system of lakes and wetlands at the end of the Murray River. I also briefly visited the lookout over Blue Lake at Mount Gambier, which is a volcanic crater lake. There might have been volcanic activity as recently as 4,300 year ago. There's no current volcanic activity on the Australian mainland. The only volcano on Australian territory (not counting Antarctica) is Big Ben on Heard Island in the southern ocean. Another interesting place in the region which I have visited before is Naracoorte Caves, which have fossils dating back to times before the arrival of humans, when there were Marsupial Lions and Diprotodons - a marsupial like a cow-sized Wombat.

Good job on the photo. Makes it worth the long drive, if you got what you were after. Interesting environment for it.

Thank you! Yes, I would have been very sad if I hadn't seen one after driving so far! As it was, I drove into the national park where they were supposed to be, and found nothing. I returned to the information centre which wasn't yet open, and a friendly local told me to walk along a trail on the edge of the town itself, and if I couldn't find one, he invited me to have a coffee at his place and watch them in his back yard! People can be incredibly helpful sometimes! So I have him to thank for getting the photos and a recording of the call.