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| Sea Birds, Ningaloo Station (2003) Rhondas Photography Blog.
The birdlife that inhabit the West-Australian Coral Coast are integral and remarkable members of the “Coral Coast Crew”. This dynamic environment provides a range of habitat niches in which many bird species have evolved to fill.
The Coral Coast Crew includes such birdlife:
· Oceanic wanderers, such as albatrosses, gannets and shearwaters that live a highly pelagic lifestyle.
· Veritable Seabirds – including storm-petrels, cormorants, curlews, gannets and boobies, gulls and terns.
· The occasional lost penguin stops in for a rest.
· Shorebirds are those that take advantage of the inter-tidal zone, such as sand-pipers and oyster-catchers.
· White-bellied sea eagles, ospreys and brahminy kites are the dominant birds-of-prey that rule the coastal skies.
· The wedge-tailed eagle, Australia's largest living bird of prey, patrols the outback skies.
· Emus, one of two Australia’s large flightless ratites, can be spotted running through the outback bush.
· The cheeky laugh of the kookaburra and chortle of the magpie can be heard in treed areas of the southern Coral Coast.
· Small bush birds are found throughout the region, including wrens and sparrows nesting in the limestone cliff edges.
(Slater et al. 2009)
The Coral Coast of Western Australia is home to more than 240 varieties of birds, with populations representing over 35% of Australia’s bird species (Slater et al. 2009).
Birds that have
adapted to life within the marine environment are known as seabirds (also known
as marine birds). Modern seabird families emerged in the Paleogene period,
while the first seabirds evolved in the Cretaceous (Slater et al. 2009).
Large breeding colonies of seabirds congregate along the coast and islands. More than 90 species of seabird have been identified on the Abrolhos Islands of Western Australia Coral Coast alone (Slater et al. 2009).
While they may
differ greatly in physiology, behaviour and lifestyle, they often exhibit
remarkable convergent evolution,
as the same selective pressures, environmental issues and feeding niches have
resulted in analogous (similar) adaptations.
 
Terns in flight, Montebello Islands. – Dr. Andy Lewis (2014).
Sooty terns, Beacon Island, Wallabi group, Abrolhos. –
Dr. Andy Lewis (2014).
  
Osprey, Rat Island, Abrolhos. – Dr. Andy Lewis (2014).
Reference:
Slater, P., Slater, P.
& Slater R. (2009) The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds, 2nd edn.,
New Holland Publishers (Aus) Pty Ltd.
images:
Sea Birds, Ningaloo Station
(2003) Rhondas Photography Blog, Bird Life Photography 2013, viewed 22 March
2014 <http://www.australianoffroad.com.au/_blog/rhondas-photography-blog/post/bird-life-photography/>
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Saturday 22 March 2014
Chicks on the beach!
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Thanks for posting about the birds of this area! This seems to be such a fascinating place and I’d love to visit it some time. I imagine that the shore birds must have an absolute field day feeding on the sea life in the inter-tidal zone. What kinds of fish would predominate in this region? Really great blog!
ReplyDeleteThe fishes are indeed a star feature of the Coral Coast Crew!
DeleteAn extensive variety of fish species can be found along the 1200kms of Coral Coast, including estuarine, benthic and pelagic populations. Of notable mention, coral reefs support approximately one third of all species in the marine environment as they are among the most complex and diverse of all marine ecosystems.
The ‘Coral Coast Crew’ featured Ningaloo Reef provides a diverse array of habitats for a multitude of colourful corals and more than 500 species of fish in its shallow lagoons and deeper offshore waters. The level of dependence of reef fishes on reef habitat varies greatly among species, may fluctuate between life stages and can change with spatial scale. Often occurring in close proximity to coral reefs, algal meadows are also a prominent feature of coastal systems along the tropical coast of Western Australia. Many key species or functional groups are targeting by recreational and commercial fishing practices.
Australia's Coral Coast is one of the few places on Earth where the world's largest fish - the whale shark – frequents annually! Stay tuned for insight into the world of this prehistoric spotty fish… all in good time ;)
Cool blog! I didn't know that 35% of Australian bird species were found at the western coast, imagine that! What would you say are typical common features for seabirds (since you mentioned convergent evolution)? Just curious;)
ReplyDeleteThanks for showing such interest! :)
DeleteConvergent evolution creates similarly-formed or functioning analogous structures, lacked by the groups' resent common ancestor (the cladistics term is homoplasy). As the story goes for most other organisms, seabirds evolved to exploit different food resources of the Earth’s oceans and seas. To a great degree, their diet has influenced their behaviour and physiology. These evolutionary forces, which act on all organisms, have often resulted in species of different orders and families to evolve similar adaptations and strategies to similar challenges, leading to extraordinary convergent evolution.
A popular example of convergent evolution of seabirds is between penguins and auks. Auks are cursorily comparable to penguins, although, they are not closely related, but rather are believed to be an example of moderate convergent evolution. Another example is the occurrence of webbed-feet in the majority of seabirds - evolved for swimming!
Although numerous variations occur, the four basic ecological guilds, or feeding strategies, for seabird feeding out at sea are: pursuit diving, plunge diving, surface diving and predation of other higher vertebrates. Not to mention the variety of shorebirds that take advantage of the intertidal zone. I hope this has given you a little more insight to convergent evolution and of the seabirds of the Coral Coast Crew ;)
I came across an article which, although is not based on birds of the Coral Coast, may be of interest to you on this topic:
Bédard, J. (1976) Coexistence, Coevolution and Convergent Evolution in Seabird Communities: A Comment, Ecology 57(1) 177-184.