Exciting regal visit.

This afternoon we were discussing some fruit in the orchard when I happened to get a glimpse of a bright yellow splash of colour at the top of the Strawberry Guava bush. First thought was a bird with a fruit from the adjacent calamondin bush, then suddenly thought, Regent Bower Bird and dashed for the camera.

The bush is some distance away and the zoom is at full 65x optical and the photo quite heavily cropped.

Definitely a male Regent Bower Bird Sericulus chrysocephalus and only the second time I have seen one on our property. They are generally found in the rainforest and adjacent forest areas of coastal Queensland and NSW.

The female is not brightly coloured being olive green to fawn with mottled and scalloped markings.

Their natural food are the fruits of rainforest trees but they are very partial to exotic fruits much the the chagrin of orchardists.

It quickly flew off into the trees where I managed to get another photo before it left the area.

 

Difficult ID

Another moth photograph taken last week and I had a difficult time trying to identify the species as there are a number of similar coloured and patterned moths.

Finally I thought I had it nailed but then I was worried as there had been few sightings so had to ask an expert. He thought it was a different species and looking at the reference he gave I found a better match. A female moth in the CATOCALINAE family  Ericeia plaesoides.

Moth rescue

Working on the pool this morning and noticed a moth floating and when I scooped out it was quite fine and not needing resuscitation.

It looked like a new species for me to add to the list of visitors to the property.Got the camera and took a couple of photos.

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 It was resting on my camera strap which is 20mm wide, so it is a reasonable size moth and the very distinctive markings I thought would make identification reasonably easy. From the shape and size I thought it would be found in the Catocaline family and it didn't take long to ID it there as Dysgonia solomonensis (also known as Bastilla s)..

This species is found in Queensland and NSW as well as New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

In Australia the caterpillar has been seen feeding on a native plant Breynia oblongifolia and we have quite a few growing around the property.

 

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