Does anyone have any idea what the described below might be? I suspect an
insect as all possible bird species seem to be ruled out by the continued
hovering over several minutes.
Ta
Jack Holland
Hi Jack and thanks for getting back so quickly - I had a look at nectar
feeders on your site and the eastern spinebill juvenile looked the closest,
(I don't think the one I saw had any clear markings like the adult spinebill
photos show - just perhaps darker on the back head and wings and slightly
lighter on the belly). The bird I saw however seemed to have a larger head
relative to body size and a smaller tail and slimmer body than the photos
show, but more importantly at no time over a good four-five minutes that I
was watching did it perch (as the photos mostly have it doing) on any of
the branches or twigs available but just hovered. It never ' flew' like a
normal bird, even when it left feeding and did a large circuit around the
courtyard to zip a circle close round my head - it hovered the whole time
(with a deep hum). Hence this is why of all things it most reminded me of
the hummingbirds I saw (and heard) last year overseas and not any other
bird. Is this hovering when not feeding also normal for a spinebill? I am
afraid I have no idea about what species of hummingbird (or anything else)
this bird might be - I like birds and will happily watch them and admire in
an ad hoc kind of way and occasionally look them up but that's about it
really.
Jennifer the first thing that comes to mind is an eastern spinebill which
often
feeds in this fashion, hovering in front of flowers). It's probably a
bit bigger (12-15 cm in the book I have at work) and has a relatively
long down-curved bill (the longest for any of the honeyeaters).
Are you familiar with this species - do you have a book in which you
can look it up? Otherwise you can look it up on the photogallery on our
website, though unfortunately none of them show the hovering besides
flowers.
Jack,
Many years ago I was a young GT in DEH - hence when I saw your name on the
Canberra Ornithological Group website when I was trying to find some help,
thought I would drop you a line.
Last Friday night at about 5.30 (late dusk - grey light but not yet dark) I
was in the backyard of my townhouse in Emu Ridge in Belconnen when I
noticed something darting around in a bush that hangs over the back fence
(which has small white/pink trumpet flowers at the moment). At first I
thought it was a bat, but then I noticed it was hovering in a very
unbatlike way. Then I thought "Its a hummingbird". Then of course I
thought "no that's impossible we don't have hummingbirds in Oz". I had
heard something about a moth that acts like a hummingbird and then
thought it must be that, and because that is such an interesting thing in
itself I watched it for five minutes, during which it hovered around a
number
of flowers sipping nectar and came down and did a clsoe recce pass around
my head then returned to the flowers.
I'm not a dedicated birdwatcher but do notice birds and am pretty
observant and I have to say at the end of that time I became convinced it
wasn't
a moth. I spent some time last year in Costa Rica and Nicaragua
watching hummingbirds a lot including up close and at about this distance
and
this had exactly the profile (large head, back arched back, short tail, the
right wing movement and when it passed close by my head the same
distinctive hum like a really big bee). It was about 2 and a half to
three inches long, the light was going so I got no real sense of colour -
but
a clear impression of shape, sound and behaviour. It didn't have a very
long beak like some do - about an inch I guess, and it was slightly curved
down.
Any ideas? Have to say it is absolutely the last thing I ever expected
to see in Belconnen. I am prepared to be convinced otherwise, but thought
I should report it to an ornithological society just in case. Sorry I
didn't get a photo but I didn't want to stop watching and by the time it had
gone full dark it had zipped off.
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