Burhinus grallarius
The Bush Stone-curlew or Bush Thick-knee (Burhinus grallarius) is a large, ground-dwelling bird endemic to Australia. Although it looks like a wader, it is a terrestrial predator filling a similar ecological niche to the roadrunners of North America.
This is a mainly nocturnal bird that specializes in hunting small grassland animals: frogs, spiders, insects, molluscs, crustaceans, snakes, lizards and small mammals; also a few seeds or tubers, particularly in drought years. The birds usually forage individually or in pairs over a large home range, particularly on moonlit nights.
During the day, Bush Stone-curlews tend to remain inactive, sheltering amongst tall grass or low shrubs and relying on their plumage to protect them from predators. When disturbed, they freeze motionless, often in odd-looking postures. For visual predators like raptors (and humans), this works well, but it serves little purpose with animals that hunt by scent such as foxes, dingoes or goannas. When threatened in the presence of a nest, they may raise their wings wide and high in an impressive threat posture and emit a loud, hoarse hissing noise.
The pic below was taken by gkaehne in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia:
Ghaehne writes: “This little guy has been living for the last five years in the gardens outside my work which happens to be an industrial area. It disappears for about four months each year around January – May time. He also has a mate that lives in a garden about 50 meters up the road.” (Source: Project Noah)
~Eowyn
