ON THE WING
Migrating Tassie fantails have been captivating twitchers on the other side of Bass Strait this autumn. Victorian birders often gather at this time of the year along their southern coast to watch the arrivals of not just fantails but other Tasmanianborn birds before the migrants make their perilous journeys further north.
On some occasions, with favourable weather conditions, there are “waves” of the birds to rival the spectacle of more famous migration sites in the Gulf of Mexico on the migration route spanning south and north America and around the Mediterranean on the route between Africa and Europe. The Tasmanian migration is never on this scale but it can be exciting all the same.
Fantails are popular birds on both sides of Bass Strait, and each autumn the Victorian birders marvel at how such seemingly frail and delicate birds manage to navigate the crossing of such a brutal stretch of sea. The fantails are indeed delicate, appearing like feathery shuttlecocks as they flit about the treetops in a hunt for flying insects.
As their name suggests, they sport long, black-and-white fan tails on a blue-grey body, with lighter undersides. Their dark heads also have white markings that make them appear as though they have carefully-painted eyebrows.
The Tasmanian sub-species (Rhipidura albiscapa albiscapa, pictured) has slight variations in its plumage which can be detected by a keen eye. It is in fact darker on the back, and more buff below.
The fantail is found across the country — except for the dry interior — and it is so well known to Tasmanians that it has been given an exclusive name here, the “cranky fan”. This reflects its jerky, seemingly nervous and twitchy behaviour as it flies in undulating flight from tree to tree, often coming to the ground at the sight of walkers, to feed on insects disturbed by their footsteps.
An account of the migration was given in the May edition of Birdlife Australia, with an observer describing the first of the migrants arriving from open sea in April. On making landfall the lone bird flopped into a shrub in dunes behind a beach. After a minute or two, catching its breath and possibly also regaining its bearings, the fantail moved off again, heading north.
There are a number of records of grey fantails undertaking the arduous trip across Bass Strait. A fisherman, bobbing about in his cray boat about 10km offshore one Easter, was bemused to see a fantail fly past his vessel, winging in from the south-east. Then he saw many more, with one exhausted bird even landing on his crayfish pots for a rest before continuing on its journey. Others have been illuminated in the light beamed by lighthouses, suggesting some fly by night.