The Eungella Bird Week will be held at Eungella National Park, Queensland, from 17^th to 22^nd September 2018.  Eungella National Park lies in the hinterland rainforest of Central Queensland, just outside Mackay. Its majestic landscape supports almost 900 species of plants and a stunning array of wildlife. There have been 227 bird species recorded here, including the endemic Eungella Honeyeater.

This event is organised by the not-for-profit conservation organisation Wild Mob.  Camilla Wagstaff tells us that the week is a unique chance to explore an incredible part of Australia. It's packed with birdwatching, wildlife walks, foodie experience, documentary screenings and more. Birders will also search for the endemic for the Eungella Honeyeater with local experts.  For full details, visit the Eungella Bird and Wildlife Week website. Wild Mob are running an early bird discount at the moment - book your ticket before Feb 28 and receive 10% off!

The December 2017 Newsletter is now available for members to download, via the Resources - Libraries & Documents page.  The complete newsletter, and all articles as individual files, are available.

On the Libraries and Documents page (from the link above), click on the folder name 'Newsletters', then click on the folder name '2017', and finally click on the folder name 'December'.  Note that you need to click on the text; clicking on the folder icon will not work (although we would really like it to!).  You must be logged in to the website to access this newsletter and/or its articles. If you are not logged in, you will only see newsletters which are more than two years old.  There is a log-in module on the Libraries and Documents page.  If you are currently logged in to the website you can go directly to this newsletter by clicking here.  [Note: this is our largest newletter to date, and it may take a minute or two to open.]

Enjoy this newsletter.

The themes, and approximate dates, for our Photo Competitions for 2018, are now available here.  The first competition will be "On the Beach", and entries will open on 29^th January.  You must be a BirdLife Photography member to enter these competitions; if you're not, and you'd like to participate, you can find details of how to join on the About Us - Membership page.

Member voting for the Best of 2017 competition, which closed for entries on 27^th November and for voting on 18^th December, has been analysed and the results for the top 5 (or more, in case of tied scores) images in each category are listed here.  In line with many other bird/wildlife photo competitions, we present the results in the following manner: the Winner is the image which received the most votes; and we also show the next four highest placed images, rating them as Highly Commended if they received at least 90% of the votes for the winning image, and Commended for scores less than that.

Advanced Level – Best of 2017

This category attracted 67 entries, from 18 photographers. 42 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Swamp Harrier, by Wilson Lennard (Image ID 28300)
• Commended - Australian Pelican, by Lea Scaddan (Image ID 28117)
• Commended - Brown Thornbill, by Warren Wilson (Image ID 28408)
• Commended - Royal Spoonbill, by Glenn Pure (Image ID 28401)
• Commended - Brolga, by Paul Thorogood (Image ID 28265)

Intermediate Level – Best of 2017

This category attracted 117 entries, from 34 photographers. 42 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Red-backed Kingfisher, by Michael Schmid (Image ID 28386)
• Highly Commended - Mulga Parrot, by Bill Harding (Image ID 28409)
• Commended - Brown Falcon, by Bill Harding (Image ID 27992)
• Commended - Rainbow Lorikeet, by Adam S Kraska (Image ID 28187)
• Commended - Shining Flycatcher, by Doug Castle (Image ID 28244)
• Commended - Australasian Gannet, by Con Duyvestyn (Image ID 28347)

Entry Level – Best of 2017

This category attracted 61 entries, from 19 photographers. 42 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Satin Bowerbird, by McKinley Moens (Image ID 28530)
• Highly Commended - Osprey, by Douglas Coughran (Image ID 28046)
• Commended - White-browed Scrubwren, by William Woodhouse (Image ID 28558)
• Commended - Nankeen Kestrel, by Douglas Coughran (Image ID 28047)
• Commended - Royal Spoonbill, by Campbell Mole (Image ID 28383)

Congratulations to all these photographers for their quality images.

A new version (2.1) of BirdLife Australia's Working List of Australian Birds has been released, and the species list used on this site has been updated to this version.  The changes are as follows:

• Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus leucocephalus) is now Pied Stilt
• Australian Painted Snipe (Rostratula australis) is now Australian Painted-snipe
• Yellow Oriole (Oriolus flavocinctus) is now Green Oriole
• the scientific name of Brown Quail has been corrected to Synoicus ypsilophorus

All references to the affected species on this site have been updated; no action is required by any member who has photos of these species in any of our galleries.