Southern Emu-wren at Port Macquarie

["Philip Veerman" <>]

A quick note about timing and going there. You first wrote I took this shot the other week and now if anyone is going up that way for Christmas. That is all fine and helpful to those who might go there and even though I would think they stay pretty much in the same area I think over that stretch of time, directions to finding little birds are likely to not lead to them. And Southern Emu-wren are closer to here (along the NSW south coast) than at Port Macquarie.

Philip

 

-----Original Message-----
From: shorty [
Sent: Friday, 19 December 2014 11:33 AM
To: Mark Clayton
Cc:
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Southern Emu-wren @ Port Macquarie

Thanks, everyone for your replies.

When i found them i was so excited about finally seeing them that i just though it was a male moulting. It wasn't till i got home i saw the gape that i thought it would be a juvenile. There were at least 5 birds but could have been more and they were going from one side of the road to the other and that had me thinking there might have been a nest around.

If anyone is going up that way for Christmas, let me know and i can give the exact location for you.

Thanks again

Shorty

On Fri, Dec 19, 2014 at 7:19 AM, Mark Clayton <> wrote:

Hi Shorty,

 

As Philip has noted the give away to the age of this bird, a juvenile, is the fleshy yellow gape coupled with its short stubby bill. Also there is new feather growth obvious on the wing and you can see the remains of its early downy feathers on the back. The area around the eye also shows as an indicator of a young bird.

 

Mark

 

From: shorty [
Sent: Thursday, 18 December 2014 4:30 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Southern Emu-wren @ Port Macquarie

 

I took this shot the other week and have been searching online trying to find out info on the juveniles but with no luck.

Hoping the experts here could enlighten me if it is indeed a juvenile, my thoughts are yes. I am putting a link to the pic in question as i don't want to loose any detail by sizing it down for this site.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rawshorty/15787901309/in/photostream/

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Shorty