Recently whilst observing a Noisy Pitta nest at Mount Glorious SE Qld we photographed one of the parents carrying a large prey-item, which may be a small bat-species (possibly a baby?……Chris Corben are you out there?) I’ve uploaded some rather poor pics onto Picasa at http://picasaweb.google.com/110205168839616870680/MtGloriousNoisyPitta?authkey=Gv1sRgCJHt0-vl1Ke1pQE They were taken with a Canon EOS7D with an extreme ISO setting (6400) to avoid using a flash. For obvious reasons I won’t give any precise locations of the nest at the moment as the young are currently about to fledge, but I would welcome any comments regarding the prey item.
Tom
Hi Tom et al
The head looks like a young sugar glider or feathertail though I can’t see any gliding membrane. You’d think a ground mammal like an Antechinus would be a more likely prey item for a Pitta but still unusual as they’d put up a great fight unlike snails. I don’t think it’s a Tapir – well outside their distribution.
Paul
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Hi all
Sure doesn’t look like a snail!
I think I can see a head and a rather dislocated-looking arm to the left of the Pitta’s bill. If so, I am not seeing a bat (no membranes, no long fingers). I would expect a Feathertail Glider to look more cold grey above and very white below (though maybe below is invisible).
There seem to be lots of bits missing, and those visible seem to be represented in far too few pixels! But it looks like a small mammal, or part thereof to me.
For what it’s worth, what I think I can see is head, maybe a couple of ears and one forelimb left of the bill, and bits of another limb out to the right of the bill. At first, the stuff on the right side looked like a baby Tapir, or maybe a cross between Tapir and Aardvark, but now I see that one Tapir’s ear is part of the Pitta’s bill, and the other is a gap through which you can see the background. So forget the Tapir!
A fair bit of imagination required, I think! Nice pictures, though!
Cheers, Chris.
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Hi Tom,
Looking at the images, particularly number 3, I wonder if the prey might be something like a juvenile Feathertail Glider. The forelimbs in img.3 seem to be fur covered and end in a paw without the long dactyls one would expect to see in a bat. Also the head looks more like that of a glider or small possum.
It will be interesting to see what others on the list think.
Cheers,
Carl Clifford
Recently whilst observing a Noisy Pitta nest at Mount Glorious SE Qld we photographed one of the parents carrying a large prey-item, which may be a small bat-species (possibly a baby?……Chris Corben are you out there?) I’ve uploaded some rather poor pics onto Picasa at http://picasaweb.google.com/110205168839616870680/MtGloriousNoisyPitta?authkey=Gv1sRgCJHt0-vl1Ke1pQE They were taken with a Canon EOS7D with an extreme ISO setting (6400) to avoid using a flash. For obvious reasons I won’t give any precise locations of the nest at the moment as the young are currently about to fledge, but I would welcome any comments regarding the prey item.
Tom