Hi All
I have here an excerpt of email description of a mystery bird seen at Lorella Springs, Gulf Of Carpentaria, by friends of mine recently. I have uploaded a poor quality photo at www.flickr.com/photos/51211480@n03/4947680651/
Please have a look and any id suggestions will be much appreciated.
Cheers
Chris Baxter
Hi Chris, hope you are all well and your back into the swing of things. We got back last night and had a great holiday. We spent most of our time at Lorella Srings in the Gulf country. When we were there we went out to the coast and saw a pair of unusual birds (approx 1.5 km inland) and I was hoping you could help. At first we thought they were Aust. Pratincoles and at a closer look we discounted that. We had binoculars and the scope so we managed to get a good look. By the time I went back and got the camera they had flown some distance off (drat!).
The birds were 22 >26 cm and very erect in their stance. The back was brown and slightly scalloped markings. The chin was white, a white eyebrow and dark eyes. They had a longish flesh coloured bill and slightly darker very long legs. Darkish band on the belly of one of them (see photo). The tail was very long and tapered and nearly touched the ground. Lot of tail bobbing. did not fly like Pratincole. were perched on dead shrub.
We’re just not sure what they are after gonig through the guide there was nothing that seemed to fit the birds features / behaviour. Any ideas? do you think it is a Pratincole and have we got it wrong completely? cheers
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
Hi Chris, I am confident that the birds are male Brown Songlarks. Everything fits, jizz, posture, shape (long legs, long pointed tails) and brown plumage, pale legs. I believe that the darker bird is more advanced into adult plumage than the one showing the dark belly patch. Thanks for sending me the photo, much easier to use than looking at a web site.
Mike Carter 30 Canadian Bay Road Mount Eliza VIC 3930 Tel (03) 9787 7136
My initial thoughts without pouring over it were Brown Songlark. The right bird looks long-tailed but I wonder whether there is small branch alinged with the tail as there seems to be the something forking of the main branch that would match. Description also matches…if correct it isn’t the first time that I have seen Brown Songlarks queried as Aust Pratincoles. Cheers, R
Rohan Clarke http://www.wildlifeimages.com.au
Need more information from your friend Chris, was it definitely long-tailed and not long-winged, what did it look like in flight eg long wings or short wings, but most importantly are there any more photos? They certainly look like passerines! Will have another look tomorrow.
Cheers Jeff.
Brown Songlark, perhaps? Seems to fit reasonably well – dark belly in particular
Cheers,
John
href=”mailto:mickhhb@yahoo.com.au”>mickhhb@yahoo.com.au href=”mailto:cbaxterki@gmail.com”>cbaxterki@gmail.com; birding-aus@vicnet.net.au href=”mailto:birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au”>birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au
============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) href=”mailto:birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au”>birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au
http://birding-aus.org ==============================
Chris,
The bird on the right of the image seems to have the jizz of a Wagtail and some features in the description fit this (white eyebrow, tail-bobbing), but others do not (eg size, black belly band).
Curious to hear others’ thoughts – its probably something obvious that I’m missing – it’s late!
Mick
________________________________ Sent: Wed, 1 September, 2010 11:13:26 PM
Hi All
I have here an excerpt of email description of a mystery bird seen at Lorella Springs, Gulf Of Carpentaria, by friends of mine recently. I have uploaded a poor quality photo at http://www.flickr.com/photos/51211480@n03/4947680651/
Please have a look and any id suggestions will be much appreciated.
Cheers
Chris Baxter
Hi Chris, hope you are all well and your back into the swing of things. We got back last night and had a great holiday. We spent most of our time at Lorella Srings in the Gulf country. When we were there we went out to the coast and saw a pair of unusual birds (approx 1.5 km inland) and I was hoping you could help. At first we thought they were Aust. Pratincoles and at a closer look we discounted that. We had binoculars and the scope so we managed to get a good look. By the time I went back and got the camera they had flown some distance off (drat!).
The birds were 22 >26 cm and very erect in their stance. The back was brown and slightly scalloped markings. The chin was white, a white eyebrow and dark eyes. They had a longish flesh coloured bill and slightly darker very long legs. Darkish band on the belly of one of them (see photo). The tail was very long and tapered and nearly touched the ground. Lot of tail bobbing. did not fly like Pratincole. were perched on dead shrub.
We’re just not sure what they are after gonig through the guide there was nothing that seemed to fit the birds features / behaviour. Any ideas? do you think it is a Pratincole and have we got it wrong completely? cheers
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) href=”mailto:birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au”>birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) href=”mailto:birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au”>birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au
http://birding-aus.org ==============================