Vivek Menon

This striking black & gold Regent Bowerbird was hopping on to a morning feed of seed that the guide at Lamington offered him. The only place where you can see the normally shy beauty up close & personal as it is restricted to the central coastal high rainforests of Queensland

Australian Logrunners are one of 3 birds in a family with modified leg bones that allow them to kick leaf litter sideways (4th pix) alternating sides as they prop themselves on the other leg & a spine tipped tail. The female (rufous) chest & male (white) played ball in Lamington!

The other bowerbird I saw was the deep midnight blue Satin Bowerbird with that unique purple eye. This was of course the male with the female (4) a scaly thrush brown but with the same piercing eye. They used to come to my breakfast table at Lamington, much better than mynahs!

A frogmouth anywhere is a great treat. A Marbled Frogmouth sitting at eyelevel on a post next to my window as @KiraMileham drove & expertly stopped in time for me to suppress my excitement & take a stable shot was the highlight of a night drive through #Lamington NP #Queensland

This is a bird that is heard almost everywhere but rarely seen. The Eastern Whipbird has a duet in which the male ends his repertoire with the sound of a cracking whip! The female responds chew-chew. It is both a skulker & a ventriloquist making it difficult to spot! @IndiAves

The other common Queensland parrot is the Crimson Rosella. More intricate in its pattern than the King, this queen of psittacines is a striking red & blue. Interestingly, a study finds that its behaviour of crushing eggs of other rosellas makes it its own worst enemy! @IndiAves

One of two common parrots of eastern Australia is the King Parrot, the male of which is a brilliant matt red with wings, tail & upper body a dull oil green. A #bird that breeds in rainforests and gum forests it comes into gardens and open areas in the non breeding season

Nothing Noisy about the Noisy Pitta in non breeding season. This one found walking about in the Botanical Gardens at #Brisbane was entirely quiet going about its morning constitutional walks with a scholarly attitude to the earth and the worms it contains.

The Buff-banded Rail is adaptive and is found in mangroves, coast & even urban garbage dumps in Brisbane. Still the bird went extinct on the main islands of Fiji and is declining rapidly in New Zealand due to introduced rodents. Shows how invasives threaten even common species.

Now for the Silvereye of Australia. Nothing silver about the eye at all. Very much like any of the other White-eyes around the world that it is related to. More distinguishable is the silver back which can be called that colour only if the silver is not polished! #Birdnames

The Australian Treecreepers are unlike their Eurasian counterparts & this White-throated Tree creeper shows how. This unique family does not use its tail as an anchor to climb trees which other treecreepers & woodpeckers do. They have very strong claws to do that job! #birds

The Pied Monarch is a lovely monarch flycatcher restricted to the Wet Tropics of northern #Queensland The white neck feathers can be raised in a ruff (see 2) and its blue spectacles and black breast band distinguishes it from other monarchs. This male was very inquisitive!

I am formally announcing my candidacy for the Chair of the @IUCNssc . Although I am un opposed I would like those @IUCN members who hold a vote, to cast it at the #WorldConservationCongress thus showing your support in my becoming the first Asian to hold this important position.

Double-eyed Fig parrots are pretty as a peach! And they ate figs right over my head and spat the seeds at me. These small beauties are so named as in a subspecies in New Guinea their blue feather patches look like eyes. In Australia the patches seem like tribal war paint! #birds

First beach I have been to where you see the second largest #bird in the world walk past children playing ball and then casually towards you The Southern Cassowary is an endangered species that often cross roads (see Queensland highway signs). Also see its colourful diet!

Now on to Australia where in the Wet Tropics near Youngabarra I got to see this enigmatic Lumholtz’s Tree Kangaroo! What a magnificent animal! This Near Threatened marsupial is the smallest of the tree kangaroos and is distributed in a small area of northern Queensland!

My @airindia flight 301 cancelled & rescheduled to 28 hours later. Instead of 7 pm yesterday now 10 pm today. Sydney airport shuts at 11 pm. Will they again cancel. Yesterday 4 engineers were in the cockpit with torches as power was not being got. Is it safe to get in today?

Golden Sunday for all of you. Here is a troop of Golden Lion Tamarins for you from the Atlantic Rain forests near Rio. These are highly researched family and many are satellite tagged. These small (10 inch & 500 gm) primates are endangered but have recovered to about 5000 animals

The Horned or Black Capuchins are the most common primates in the Atlantic rain forests of south eastern Brazil & neighbouring Argentina. I found this mother & young in the Foz de Iguazu NP in Brazil. The 3rd photo shows the horns! Unfortunately they are commensal #primates

Look out for the final report of the 4th Asian Elephant Range State Meet held in Cam India in February this year that the @IUCN_AsESG that I chair had the good fortune of co hosting with Cambodia. @IUCNssc @ifawglobal