A bird that fits that body description and flight pattern well is the Satin
Bowerbird. HANZAB: 'Flight strong and undulating, birds closing wings to
body between strong wing-beats on widely spread wings, with wing-tips
upswept with every downstroke'. Young Satins can be brownish. In shrubby
country where Spotteds are plentiful they can be identified at a distance by
that flight pattern.
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul T.
Sent: Wednesday, 23 July 2008 5:53 PM
To:
Subject: Unknown bird with unusual flight pattern
Howdy All,
This is a somewhat strange ID request. On Friday morning I was
heading up to Bowral. I'd gone through Gungahlin, turned right and
was heading along Horse Park Dr (I think?) towards the big overpass
on the Federal Highway. Just after I'd turned right on to that road
a bird flew across in front of me. A fairly non-descript colouration
of a couple of shades of greyish brown but with quite chunky in
build. It looked to be about the length of a Red Wattle Bird, but
was much broader in the body. The thing that attracted my attention
was the method of flight, something I had never come across
before. After each flap of it's wings it folded them completely back
to it's body, looking like a bird would do when sitting on a branch
(if you know what I mean), then snap them out again for a flap, then
back completely closed. While I've seen Rosellas do this after ever
few wingbeats, this one did it every wing beat. It almost looked
like it shouldn't be flying as more of it's time was spent with wings
folded than with the wings actually opened. I have never seen a bird
fly like this before, so I am wondering what bird it was? I didn't
get that good a look at the bird other than basic colour and
chunkiness of build, so there is no chance of me IDing it from a
book. Is that flight pattern something unique enough to identify it?
Yes I realise that there are some here who will feel I am wasting
time even asking, and I do apologise to those who feel that way. I
just couldn't work out how else I could find out what the bird
was. I'd love to search it out and see it flying again as it just
looked so "wrong" while in flight. Totally fascinating.
Any ideas anyone?
Cheers.
Paul T.
Higgins, ACT
****************************************************************************
***************************
|
