I've heard enough to be convinced that the photographed birds are Leadens.
It appears that the tail is very good feature, and one I wasn't aware of.
The photographs sent to me show the graduation that Mike refers to (though
not in the order he gives). I've removed the blog post. This has always been
a tricky group - on this occasion I was fooled by the fact that the bills
looked huge as the birds were very close and above me in the kayak, and the
calls sounded identical to the Broad-billed playback. Greg
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Carter
Sent: Monday, 12 December 2011 3:51 PM
To: Greg Roberts;
Subject: broad-billed flycatcher on sunshine coast - Not
so!
Sorry Greg but your shots show the birds to be Leaden not Broad-billed
Flycatchers. Tail shape is diagnostic, square in Satin & Leaden Flycatchers,
rounded in Broad-billed. In Broad-billed the outer rectrices are 5-7 mm
longer than the central pair and the fairly even graduation in length is
obvious viewed ventrally. In your birds T1 to T6 are almost equal in length.
See HANZAB. Bill shape and measurements are confusable and frequently
mislead.
Mike Carter
30 Canadian Bay Road
Mount Eliza VIC 3930
Tel (03) 9787 7136
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