Djarawong Lodge Birds - P-R
Peaceful Dove
The Peaceful Dove is a small, sturdy dove, with a long graduated tail and wedge-shaped wings. The eye-ring, eye and cere (the soft parts above the bill) are all blue-grey. The upper body is mainly brown-grey, with dark barring. The head and lower throat is a softer grey, with dark scallops. The throat is white and lower body pinkish. The feet are a deep pink. They are usually seen in pairs or small parties, never far from water. The flight is direct, low to the ground and undulating. Their call is very distinctive and is the source of one of their common names, 'Doodle-Doo'. They also may be called the Placid, Zebra or Barred Dove.
Peaceful Doves are found in open dry woodland with a grassy understorey and the edges of rainforest. In drier areas, they are often in woodland beside rivers, pandanus and vine thickets. They feed on the ground and roost in trees.
Peaceful Doves forage on the ground in open, bare areas, in paddocks, beside roads and in gardens. They feed mainly on small seeds of grasses and sedges, and sometimes small insects. They need to drink at least twice a day.
Pheasane Coucal
A large 'pheasant-like', ground-dwelling cuckoo, the Pheasant Coucal has a long tail and short rounded wings. In its breeding plumage, it has a black head, neck and underbody with the upperparts and wings reddish-brown with black and cream barring and the black tail is barred orange.
The Pheasant Coucal prefers dense understorey vegetation, particularly grasses, rushes, bracken and sedges, in open forests and woodlands, and around wetlands. Often found in sugar cane plantations near wetlands, on farmlands with thick grasses and weed-infested thickets, such as Lantana. Often seen in parks, gardens and along roads or railway lines. The Pheasant Coucal feeds on the ground on large insects, frogs, lizards, eggs and young of birds and, sometimes, small mammals.
The nest is usually hidden in thick grass or sugar cane or in weedy thickets and is a platform of sticks, grass or rushes, lined with leaves and grasses.
These large birds can be seen walking through the rear of our property on occasions.
Rainbow Bee-eater
A striking, colourful bird, the Rainbow Bee-eater is medium sized, with a long slim curved bill and a long tail with distinctive tail-streamers. It has a golden crown and a red eye set in a wide black stripe from the base of the bill to the ears, which is edged with a thin blue line. The throat is orange-yellow, with a broad black band separating it from a green breast. The upperparts are green, with the flight feathers coppery and black tipped. The underwings are bright orange, with a black edge. The lower abdomen is blue. The tail is black, including the long tail streamers, with a blue tinge.
Rainbow Bee-eaters eat insects, mainly catching bees and wasps, as well as dragonflies, beetles, butterflies and moths. They catch flying insects on the wing and carry them back to a perch to beat them against it before swallowing them. Bees and wasps are rubbed against the perch to remove the stings and venom glands.
Rainbow Bee-eaters gather in small flocks before returning to summer breeding areas after over-wintering in the north (apart from the resident northern populations). Both males and females select a suitable nesting site in a sandy bank and dig a long tunnel leading to a nesting chamber, which is often lined with grasses.
We have named one of our rooms after this magnificent bird.
Rainbow Lorikeet
The Rainbow Lorikeet is unmistakable with its bright red beak and colourful plumage. Both sexes look alike, with a blue (mauve) head and belly, green wings, tail and back, and orange/yellow markings.
The Rainbow Lorikeet mostly forages on the flowers of shrubs or trees to harvest nectar and pollen, but also eats fruits, seeds and some insects.
The Rainbow Lorikeet appears to have benefited from artificial feeding stations and prolific-fruiting and flowering trees and shrubs.
Red-browed Finch
The Red-browed Finch is most easily recognised by its bright red eyebrow, rump and beak, on an otherwise green and grey bird. Upperparts are olive green with grey underneath.
The Red-browed Finch feeds on seeds and insects on the ground, but sometimes perches on seeding grass heads.
Its preference for open grassy areas surrounded by dense shrubbery enables the Red-browed Finch to survive well in weedy areas along railway tracks and creek lines, where seeding grasses escape the lawnmower. It may also benefit from bird feeders, provided the seeds are small and larger competitors are excluded.