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Red-tailed Blacks in Beenak Forest - a summary

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Subject: Red-tailed Blacks in Beenak Forest - a summary
From: brian fleming <>
Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:04:37 +1000
  This topic generated a lot of comment but no sort of confirmation.
My only reason for launching the topic was to see if anyone could confirm that there are some RTBCs or Glossies in the Cockatoo - Beenak area. (However, it might still be well worth keeping an eye and ear open if you are in the area.)

The possibilities were Red-Tailed and Glossy. RTBC could just be possible as an escapee group. Certainly last year's record of a female RTBC on Birdline was genuine, even if it was an escape. (Everyone should carry a digital camera at all times.) I haven't enough personal experience of Glossies, but they seem unlikely.

Laurie Conole suggests that old worn plumage in the yellow panels in a YTBC can look distinctly orange or even red. This is a definite possibility. However the head shape when the crest is even partway raised should distinguish the two species, let alone the calls.

Perhaps I should remark that male humans quite often suffer from red/green colour blindness, sometimes in less extreme forms resulting in seeing most shades of red as a sort of dull rufous or chestnut colour.

I have been caught out far too often by birds that "could not possibly have occurred" where they were reported. Over the years I have seen a Little Friarbird, a Cicada-bird and a Brush Cuckoo, in Ivanhoe. The Brush Cuckoo was confirmed by Philip Veerman, who was with me at the time, and some other bird person confirmed the Little Friarbird (back in 1978). The Cicada-bird was utterly condemned by Roy Wheeler, but some years later I saw one at Morass Creek in Gippsland which looked and sounded identical. And what about the Red-backed Kingfisher I saw at Banyule Flats circa 1982? Birds do turn up unexpectedly all over the
place.

  My grateful thanks to all those who made comments.
  Anthea Fleming



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