G'day Anthony
Thornbills can be hard. My guess from your call description is Brown Thornbill.
I find habitat and behaviour are really useful guides to thornbill species down
my way.
Striated are always in tree canopies and usually in small groups.
Brown are usually in the shrub layer and typically in pairs.
Yellow-rumped and Buff-rumped both seem to spend quite a bit of time on the
ground. Probably the Yellow-rumped spend more time on the ground than the
Buff-rumped. I have trouble picking the calls of these two. They both often
occur together or in feeding flocks with other species (Speckled Warblers,
Southern Whiteface, Red-browed Finches etc.).
Yellow Thornbills are rather rare in south-west Victoria - at least the wetter
areas. I have a couple of records from the Grampians which I now wonder about.
Only a couple of records from other areas I'm confident in. We did have a small
population in Hamilton - in the Parklands for those who know it - but they seem
to have gone. They really are yellow and quite distinct from Brown and
Striated. My limited expereince is that they are mostly canopy feeders and
often alone or in pairs. I'm hopeless at describing calls but they have a
distinct insect-like call different to the Stirated's. Most guides say they
prefer fern-leaved wattles but I can't comment on that.
Then there are the dry country thornbills....
Cheers
Steve
Hamilton, Vic.
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