other names
Bush Thick-Knee, Weeloo or Willaroo

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DESCRIPTION

Adults: 500 to 580mm in length. Sexes similar in appearance, male slightly larger. Upper feathers grey-brown streaked with black. Forehead buff coloured. White eyebrow with dusky stripe running through eye and down neck. Throat feathers off white, breast, belly and flanks buff. Yellow eye. Black beak. Tail barred black and white on outer feathers. Long olive-brown legs and feet. Black claws.

Juvenile: As adult but paler in colour and more lightly marked..

Voice: Loud mournful, high pitched wailing - wee-loo - about 2 to 3 seconds in length and usually only at night or during breeding season. Harsh wheeze in defence.

The Bush Stone-Curlew can be found in open wooded rangelands, forest edges and inland water courses throughout much of Australia, avoiding sandy or treeless desert areas and also dense forest. The eerie sounding night time call is often the only sign that it is about. The Bush Stone-Curlew has become rare in southern pastoral areas due to habitat disturbance and predation. It roosts by day hiding in soil and leaf litter, becoming active at dusk when groups of ten to twenty can forage together. Night time foraging areas can be up to twenty kilometres, however it is a sendentary bird and rarely ventures out of its territory. Diet consists mostly of insects. Breeding season is from July to January and as the season begins larger groups disperse and pairs of birds return to traditional territories. Mating is heralded by night time duetting. The nest is a scrape in the ground often near the base of a tree or bush. Usually two eggs are laid a few nights apart. Incubation is between 28 and 30 days by both sexes. Young hatch at the same time and walk within hours of hatching. Parents teach chicks to feed by dropping food in front of them. Young are fully grown in about 50 days.