Lisa Preston has just sent me details of a pitta seen yesterday (11/11) on the Winifred Beach track on Christmas Island. It was videoed by Braydon Moloney. The bird has a narrow pale supercilium above the black through the face which seems to identify it as a Fairy Pitta (rather than a Blue-winged Pitta). This would be the first record for Christmas Island and the second for Australia (the first was in Derby in 2007). But ID has to be confirmed.
Lisa reports that in recent times she has flushed birds she thinks could have been Black Bittern, Whimbrel and a Japanese/Chinese Sparrowhawk but they were gone before she could positively ID them. These are uncommon to rare birds for CI. I believe that the annual tours will be happening in the next few weeks, so hopefully more reports of unusual sightings. Lisa does say that there has been no rain for some time, and that it is extremely dry there at the moment.
_________________________________________________________________ Frank O’Connor Birding WA http://birdingwa.iinet.net.au Phone : (08) 9386 5694 Email : foconnor@iinet.net.au
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