Australasian Swamphens breeding close to Broome – 10,000 Birds

This 12 months, with the distinctive rain and flooding throughout a lot of the land there was an excellent alternative for a lot of chook species to maneuver to the world and breed. It isn’t simply the Magpie Geese and Pied Herons that arrived and selected to breed, but additionally the Australasian Swamphens. Over current weeks and months we’ve gone from observing a couple of Australasian Swamphens nipping forwards and backwards throughout the Great Northern Highway to the south of Broome to watching a couple of hundred of them.

Juvenile Australasian Swamphen a couple of weeks in the past

It didn’t take lengthy and all over the place you appeared there have been Australasian Swamphens feeding beside the freeway. They’ve poor camouflage as you possibly can see! The youthful birds do not need the very pink invoice of the adults, however they’re nearly equally blue.

Australasian Swamphens feeding beside the freeway

The Australasian Swamphens seem to make use of their toes rather a lot once they feed. Because the land dries out they may transfer away from the world. There are another reedbeds near Broome and Derby that they might transfer to, however they might effectively transfer additional afield. It’s most probably that these Australasian Swamphens will journey to the north.