Just after Christmas I was walking along busy Obriens Road from
Wentworthville to Northmead (Sydney suburbs) where it crosses over
a creek and I believe I heard bellbirds calling along the creek.
Not quite as liquid as the bellbird calls I remember from the
rainforests of Cunninghams Gap area, but then my ears now would be
a lot tinnier than the times past when I explored the Gap area.

These in Wenty were just as elusive as true bellbirds: first one
nearby on my left would call, then one further away, then one on the
right, and another away in the distance, then another real close,
and so on. And like bellbirds, they remained unseen.

Now, if they weren't really bellbirds, any idea what species they
could have been?
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

John Savage wrote in
om:

Just after Christmas I was walking along busy Obriens Road from
Wentworthville to Northmead (Sydney suburbs) where it crosses over
a creek and I believe I heard bellbirds calling along the creek.
Not quite as liquid as the bellbird calls I remember from the
rainforests of Cunninghams Gap area, but then my ears now would be
a lot tinnier than the times past when I explored the Gap area.

These in Wenty were just as elusive as true bellbirds: first one
nearby on my left would call, then one further away, then one on the
right, and another away in the distance, then another real close,
and so on. And like bellbirds, they remained unseen.

Now, if they weren't really bellbirds, any idea what species they
could have been?

Some neighbours told me recently that they had been hearing bellbirds at
Northmead (although I can't recall exactly where in Northmead they said
they were) and suspected that some had moved into the area this past
spring. I haven't seen or heard them personally, but it's quite possible
that you did hear bellbirds.

Geodyne

Geodyne writes:
John Savage wrote in

Just after Christmas I was walking along busy Obriens Road from
Wentworthville to Northmead (Sydney suburbs) where it crosses over
a creek and I believe I heard bellbirds calling along the creek.

Some neighbours told me recently that they had been hearing bellbirds at
Northmead (although I can't recall exactly where in Northmead they said
they were) and suspected that some had moved into the area this past
spring. I haven't seen or heard them personally, but it's quite possible
that you did hear bellbirds.

Very interesting. Perhaps the drought is forcing the birds in closer to
civilization. Your answer prompted me to search further, and google turned
up some more details which I've excerpted without attribution:

It lives in colonies and its continual sounds are thought to aid in
locating other members of the colony. A colony usually stays in the
same place for many years, with the birds jealously guarding their
individual territories. This jealous territorial behaviour can exclude
other birds from the forest and allow certain kinds of insects to
breed up and cause stress and dieback to the canopy trees above a
bellbird colony.

]Bell Miners (Manorina melanophrys) feed on lerps, insects which infest
]eucalypt groves and which exude a sugary covering. I don't know that
]it's a good idea to try and attract Bell Miners if you are in a suburban
]pocket, as I recall hearing that bellbird colonisation will drive other
]species out of the area, leading, eventually, to the demise of the
]eucalypt forest patch as other insects move in when their natural
]predators have gone.
]
]I'm sorry that I can't give more specific information, but I'm recalling
]the content of a radio program from a few years ago, which discussed why
]bellbird colonies in the green outskirts of Sydney were gradually
]destroying the local bird habitat.

Reading further, as far as residents near a bellbird colony are concerned,
the birds' loud metallic "plink plink" calls from sun-up to sundown very
quickly lose their novelty. :-(
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

This exchange prompted me to look in my bird books and I discovered
something I didn't realise... there is a bird called commonly the
crested bellbird. This is not, in fact, the 'tink tink' sounding
bellbird.

As John Savage points out, the bellbird is in fact the Bell Miner!
Some years ago, I saw them on the south cost in eucalypt forest after
hearing their call. I looked them up in Slater and Slater and found
they were Bell Miners. I thought at the time, oh, they aren't bell
birds! Wrong.

Glenn

John Savage wrote:

Geodyne writes:
John Savage wrote in

Just after Christmas I was walking along busy Obriens Road from
Wentworthville to Northmead (Sydney suburbs) where it crosses over
a creek and I believe I heard bellbirds calling along the creek.

Some neighbours told me recently that they had been hearing bellbirds at
Northmead (although I can't recall exactly where in Northmead they said
they were) and suspected that some had moved into the area this past
spring. I haven't seen or heard them personally, but it's quite possible
that you did hear bellbirds.

Very interesting. Perhaps the drought is forcing the birds in closer to
civilization. Your answer prompted me to search further, and google turned
up some more details which I've excerpted without attribution:

It lives in colonies and its continual sounds are thought to aid in
locating other members of the colony. A colony usually stays in the
same place for many years, with the birds jealously guarding their
individual territories. This jealous territorial behaviour can exclude
other birds from the forest and allow certain kinds of insects to
breed up and cause stress and dieback to the canopy trees above a
bellbird colony.

]Bell Miners (Manorina melanophrys) feed on lerps, insects which infest
]eucalypt groves and which exude a sugary covering. I don't know that
]it's a good idea to try and attract Bell Miners if you are in a suburban
]pocket, as I recall hearing that bellbird colonisation will drive other
]species out of the area, leading, eventually, to the demise of the
]eucalypt forest patch as other insects move in when their natural
]predators have gone.
]
]I'm sorry that I can't give more specific information, but I'm recalling
]the content of a radio program from a few years ago, which discussed why
]bellbird colonies in the green outskirts of Sydney were gradually
]destroying the local bird habitat.

Reading further, as far as residents near a bellbird colony are concerned,
the birds' loud metallic "plink plink" calls from sun-up to sundown very
quickly lose their novelty. :-(

Glenn Pure
Canberra, Australia
Web page: http://www.evans-pure.net

Glenn Pure writes:
something I didn't realise... there is a bird called commonly the
crested bellbird. This is not, in fact, the 'tink tink' sounding
bellbird.

As John Savage points out, the bellbird is in fact the Bell Miner!

Quite. It seems analogous to the seagull situation. The bird we commonly
refer to as a seagull is not the seagull -- it's correct name is the
silver gull. The real seagull is a different (larger) species.

]Bell Miners (Manorina melanophrys) feed on lerps, insects which infest
]eucalypt groves and which exude a sugary covering. I don't know that

If the bell miner feeds on lerps, can we call it a honeyeater?
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)