As detailed below there has been a change in venue for the COG/Canberra Birds monthly meetings for the first half of 2026. 

Temporary change of meeting venue for Canberra Birds

The Canberra Birds committee has decided to change the venue for our monthly members’ meetings, at least until renovations of the Canberra Girls Grammar School’s Multi-media Theatre are complete, expected in August/September 2026.

The new venue is the Bugang Room at the Denman Village Community Centre, located at 5 Felstead Vista, adjacent to the Denman Prospect shops (see Google Maps link https://maps.app.goo.gl/NqW3XrN5iJf8dzRe9)

This is a light, spacious, modern event venue with a kitchen.  There is plentiful parking, under lights, close to the door and with several disabled parking spots outside the door.  The room is on the first floor, accessed by two flights of stairs or by a lift.

To help guide you once there the Canberra Birds Sandwich Boards will be outside the front door and at the top of the stairs/lift.

For people attending the meeting by public transport, the R10 bus provides a very good service around every 15 minutes from the ANU through Civic to the Denman Prospect shops with the bus stop opposite the venue.  For example, a bus runs to there from 6:57 to 7:23 pm and return buses at 9:05 or 9:35 pm arriving at the ANU at 9:31 and 10:01 pm, respectively.

The first speaker will be Rhiana Woods, an Honours student at the Research School of Biology at the ANU, on “The spandrels of nest architecture in a cooperatively breeding mud nester”

Variation in nest architecture is often interpreted as being adaptive, whereby birds shape their nest in response to environmental pressures such as predation, concealment or sexual selection.  Many studies have examined nest architecture in this context, however, fewer have considered the role of constraints and limitations in shaping the structures that birds are able, rather than optimised, to build.  Rhiana has been studying the mud nests of the White-winged Choughs, a cooperative breeder common in Canberra, to understand how limitations or constraints can influence nest architecture.

Because mud nests are costly to build, they can allow us to study what determines the decisions of birds to build a new nest over reusing an old nest, or whether to build a large nest or a small nest.  First, she explored whether the ability to build is dependent on the availability of mud.  Second, group size and group composition may create a social constraint whereby smaller groups, or groups with more immature birds participating, may be limited in the capacity to construct an optimal nest.  Lastly, these factors may influence whether choughs will decide to build a new nest over reusing an old nest.  Rhiana’s research proposes that at least part of the variation in nest architecture may not be a reflection of optimisation, but rather what is possible under environmental and social constraints.

The main presentation will be by John Hurrell on “My Canberra Birding Big Year”

In 2023 local birder John Hurrell set out to see at least 200 different species of birds in the ACT.  He wrote about his big year in the July 2024 edition of the Canberra Bird Notes.

In this talk John will explain the basis for settling on the number 200 and some of the strategies he adopted to achieve this target.  John will then detail some of the birds he saw and where and when they were seen, on a month-by-month basis.

One of the more notable birds seen that year was a Spotted Harrier, which spent several weeks in and around the Molonglo River Reserve just north of Coombs.  It became something of a celebrity amongst Canberra birders and photographers.  John will spend part of the talk briefly describing the harrier’s behaviour during its extended visit, before continuing with his monthly account of birds seen throughout the year.