g'Day All
An immature Dollarbird was observed at Scamander, Tasmania today (5th
March 2007) at about 4 pm.
While driving east along Upper Scamander Road with my wife Patricia, our
attention was drawn to a medium sized dark coloured bird with
distinctive "roller" flight showing white "dollar" under wing flashes,
flying adjacent and about 50 metres north east of us. Flying about 10
metres above the ground and following along the undulating forest margin
where it meets the road, it settled on a horizontal limb about 25 metres
from us illuminated by bright sunlight shining from behind us. By it's
characteristic appearance the bird was immediately identified as a
Dollarbird.
We observed the bird in perfect conditions perched and preening for more
than 3 minutes before it flew a short distance to the north settling
again into an isolated Blackwood tree growing within a lightly timbered
farm paddock near the southern bank of Scamander River.
Weather conditions: Mild temperature, approx. 2/8 middle level cloud
with low humidity and a light south west breeze. Weather for the past
few weeks has been warm to hot and humid with mostly east/ north east
and north winds
Location
Upper Scamander Rd at a point 5.9 km. west of Tasman Highway where a
power line crosses the road 100 metres west of a red letterbox
displaying 100 mm black numbers 599 on white reflective background..
The area is unburned little more than 1 km from where severe bushfires
passed in late December 2006
Description
Medium sized bird, strong broad dusky grey bill with a hooked tip, dark
grey coloured legs, grey brown head and neck, paler blue upper breast
and deeper blue wings with dark grey primaries back and tail. Rolling
flight with strong purposeful wing strokes showing conspicuous white
under wing patches. No red visible on bill or legs indicating immature
bird.
As I have no access to relevant texts at present, would someone confirm
status of Dollarbird in Tasmania please?
Regards
Ian May
St Helens, Tasmania
0428337956
(03) 63761966
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