The White-winged Triller – a fine spring songster

Spring has most certainly sprung throughout our region and the bush right now is alive and bursting with activity. Birds are at their peak of nesting and many of the species in the breeding line-up have recently arrived from afar, migrating south from inland and northern parts of the country to take advantage of the spring smorgasbord of food on offer in our forests and woodlands. One of the more obvious species, by its call and its appearance, is the White-winged Triller. The numbers of this migratory species visiting Victoria varies from year to year, sometimes being completely absent if the population chooses to stay further north, yet in others large numbers appear. They typically arrive in October, however this year the first records were as early as mid-September - a sign of the warming times. Many of the other spring migrants, such as Rainbow Bee-eaters, were also a couple of weeks ahead of their normal schedule this year. Trillers belong to the same family as cuckoo-shrikes and like their larger relatives, they are typically quite neat in appearance. Male White-winged Trillers undergo a transformation into their black and white breeding plumage towards the end of winter, ready for attracting a mate upon arrival to their breeding grounds. During their non-breeding phase, when they occur across northern Australia, males moult back into their eclipse plumage - a largely tan brown colour scheme, though they retain some of the black and white markings on their wings and tail. Females resemble non-breeding males, but they lack the darker wings and tail. In flight, these birds are rather graceful and showy, with long loping undulations and flashes of white in their pointed wings. When foraging, White-winged Trillers are quite versatile, actively seeking insects, seeds, fruits and nectar from all levels of their habitat. They are as competent as gleaning food from the ground as they are in shrubs or in the eucalypt canopy. They also ‘hawk’ insects in the air, hunting them from a high perch and chasing them acrobatically, then taking them back to a nearby perch to consume. The best way to locate White-winged Trillers is to listen for their distinctive descending 'chiff-chiff-joey-joey-joey' call. Though they are often quiet early in the morning, once the temperature increases during the day they call incessantly, all in the name of attracting a mate. They build small nests on horizontal branches or forks of a tree. The nest is a small frail cup of bark, grasses and fine material, bound with spiders' web. They may breed in loose colonies, sometimes with many nests in one tree. Both parents incubate and brood the nestlings. The breeding season usually occurs from October to December where a clutch of two to three eggs are incubated for roughly two weeks, with young fledging two weeks later. Keep an eye (or ear) out for a triller near you. Currently they are quite common around the Warby Ranges and the timbered hills around Springhurst and Chiltern.

The White-winged Triller – a fine spring songster

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