Mystery bird

[Andy Burton <>]

We continue to slowly add new species to the modern (>1980) Willoughby birdlist but occasionally along comes a bird that stumps me.

For those that don't know, Willoughby is in the centre of Sydney's northern suburbs and the two most recent additions to the list are Painted Button-quail  and Lewins Rail. Both were undoubtedly here in the past  but with the recent loss of most foxes in the area the birds might be returning on a more permanent basis.

Back to the mystery bird.

Description:

Think Pipit, Reed-warbler, female Triller types.

The only bird that I think this might be is a Richard's  Pipit  but there are a couple of features that don't quite back-up this ID. and I wonder whether there is a south-east Asian vagrant that might be taking its holidays here.

The head, chin and throat were certainly like those of a Richard's Pipit. Bill pale and very slightly downcurved, chin pale and unmarked, a neatly defined area of streaking across the breast  and the ventral area off-white and unmarked.

My problem is with the tail which admittedly I didn't see well. When I first saw the bird, it had flown into a young allocasuarina glauca at about eye-height and the glimpsed tail looked relatively long, broad at the distal end and plain but quite rich brown in colour.

The bird was not comfortable with my  presence and several times flew-off to nearby trees up to about 40  metres away. When flying away there was no evidence of white edging to outer tail feathers as is typical of most Pipits in my experience.

Habitat:

The bird was initially seen flying from the water's edge a few metres away into the allocasuarina. The water in question is a large inlet (Long Bay) off Middle / Sydney  Harbour. The end of the bay has recently been lined with a shallow sandstone (small boulders)  bank and in a few places planted with juncus sp. and native grasses which give a little cover.

Heading away from the head of the bay are, successively, an open mown area planted with a small number of allocasuarinas, a road and small carpark and then sports ovals.  Most of this is lined on each side by a narrow strip of Angophora costata  forest on steep-sided sandstone.

I thought it odd that this bird, if a Richard's Pipit, would fly away into the fringe of the nearby forest rather than keep ahead of me on the mown area of the sports fields.

Any ideas, especially from our Asian experts.

Regards, Andy

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Andy Burton's Bush Tours
52  Abingdon Rd
ROSEVILLE
NSW  2069

Ph. 61 2 9416 2636
Mob. 0408 937 531