Perth Hills Armadale Visitor Centre
Armadale Settlers Common is a bird-watching paradise and a recent avian fauna survey conducted by the City of Armadale shows bird numbers are on the rise! So grab your binoculars, pop on your hiking boots and head out on the trails to see how many of these species you can spot.
1. Forest Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo
These giant cockatoos have giant personalities to match! Listen out for their loud squawks as they fly overhead. Keep an eye out for a mess of honkey-nuts (gum-nuts) on the pathways, these birds love to feast on the seeds of Marri and Jarrah trees and drop their leftovers on the ground below.
Image credit: Mr Tony Kirkby
2. Baudin’s Black Cockatoo
Instead of the striking red of the Forest Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo, these birds sport white cheek patches and a white band on the tail. Due to their large size they need very old trees with large hollows to nest in. To form a large enough hollow, trees generally need to be at least 100 years old which is why habitat loss is such a significant threat and what makes the Common such a great home.
Image credit: Mr Tony Kirkby
3. Red-capped Parrot
This distinctive bird has plumage that can only be described as gaudy! With large patches of red, green, yellow and purple-blue. Despite looking like the life of the party, the general consensus is this bird is monogamous and mates for life. At the age of about 20 months the male performs a courtship display that involves ruffling its feathers then raising and lowering its tail to attract a mate.
4. Western Whistler
Our favourite chonky bird with the male’s yellow and black colouring distinctly resembling a bumblebee. The females exhibit a muted grey colour that helps them stay out of sight of predators and scouting photographers alike. You may not spot one, but if you visit the Common and listen carefully you’ll almost certainly hear their call- a short whistle with a higher pitched whip ending.
5. Common Bronzewing
If you’re looking for a better dressed pigeon than your normal city dwellers look no further. You can tell a male from a female by looking at the distinct yellow and white forehead markings and their beautiful iridescent wings. They only eat on the ground and when disturbed take flight with a bit of noise so often can only be observed from afar.
6. Western Spinebill
This bird is the faunal emblem of Armadale Settlers Common so it is very fitting that it was the most common bird observed during the recent survey! They can often be spotted darting about the woodland. Their most characteristic feature is its slender, down-curving beak, used to extract nectar from flowers.
Image credit: Mr Tony Kirkby
Have you spotted these or any of the other amazingly diverse bird species in Armadale Settlers Common? We’d love to hear about it! Share your photos with us on Facebook or Instagram by tagging us #PerthHillsArmadale @PerthHillsArmadale.
Armadale Settlers Common trail maps available for free from the Perth Hills Armadale Visitor Centre. Find us at 40 Jull Street, Armadale.
